Accused ambassador flies home from London

Iran’s former ambassador to Argentina, accused of involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, flew home today after Britain said there was not enough evidence to consider extraditing him.

Hade Soleimanpour said in Tehran that the case against him was “an international conspiracy aimed at the Iranian nation and the senior officials of the country.”

Soleimanpour, 47, was arrested in Durham on August 21 on an Argentine warrant accusing him of conspiracy to murder. The attack on the Jewish centre killed 85 people.

After reviewing 6,000 pages of evidence provided by Argentina, Home Secretary David Blunkett decided not to grant permission for a full court hearing on the extradition request, saying there was not enough evidence to continue the case.

Soleimanpour was Iran’s ambassador to Argentina at the time of the bombing. He is now a graduate student at Durham University.

Soleimanpour’s arrest strained relations between London and Tehran, which has always denied responsibility for the bombing. Iranian officials threatened to withdraw some diplomats from Britain over the affair. Shots were fired near British diplomatic buildings in Tehran several times in September, around the time Soleimanpour was appearing in a London court, causing no injuries.