" Minister Nordio has filed a request to the Court of Appeal of Milan to revoke the arrest of Iranian citizen Abedini Najafabadi Mohammad ." This was communicated in an official note from the Ministry of Justice released this afternoon. Abedini, the judicial authorities of Tehran later announced, will return to Iran "in the next few hours."
When it was said, it was already done: the Iranian engineer for whom the United States had requested extradition because he was accused of being involved in terrorist actions, according to what we learn, left the Opera prison already this morning.
"The decision taken by the Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio, happily surprised us. Now my client is a free person and will be able to smile and hope again. He always told me that he believed and had faith in justice": this is what his lawyer commented.
"Under Article 2 of the Extradition Treaty between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Italian Republic , only crimes punishable under the laws of both contracting parties may give rise to extradition, a condition which, in the current state of affairs, cannot be considered to exist ", the ministry said, specifying that the accusation against the Iranian of "criminal association to violate the IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act - US federal law) does not correspond to the cases provided for and punished by the Italian criminal system".
As for the other charges, the ministry continues, there is no evidence that the 38-year-old supported terrorism . In fact, the Iranian is also accused in the US of criminal association to provide material support to a terrorist organization resulting in death and of supplying and attempting to supply material support to a foreign terrorist organization resulting in death : " No element has been adduced today to support the charges leveled , what emerges is the performance, through companies attributable to him, of production and trade activities with his own country of technological instruments having potential, but not exclusive, military applications".
