Iran to charge captured Britons

[CShine]

Iran will prosecute eight British sailors seized after they apparently strayed into Iranian waters on the Iraqi border, Iran's Al-Alam television said yesterday. British officials have not been given access to the men, detained on Monday with their three boats, and have not been told where they are being held.

Iran's ambassador to London was called to an urgent meeting at the Foreign Office yesterday. "The ambassador was asked to explain why the eight are being held, for their release as soon as possible and for full consular access to them meanwhile," a spokesman said.

Quoting unnamed Iranian military sources, Al-Alam said the eight men were to be prosecuted on charges of "illegally entering Iran's waters".

"The British military officials were arrested after they entered 1000 metres into Iranian waters. The British confessed that they were arrested when they were inside Iran's waters," it added.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/22/1087844944597.html?from=storylhs

[Tempest]

1. Thanks George!

"British officials have not been given access to the men, detained on Monday with their three boats, and have not been told where they are being held."

And according to Dumbya, they have no obligation to allow the men to be seen, or to say where they are being held.

This is exactly what the generals were talking about when they said Dumbya's policies would come back to haunt allied troops.

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. i wonder if this is a precursor to an attack on iran?.....

cause we all know how much dumbya loves to be regarded as a "war-time president".

[struggle4progress]

3. Conflicting reports on seized sailors

Iran interrogated eight British sailors but their prosecution for straying into Iranian waters was not discussed, a foreign ministry source said yesterday, as the border incident grew into a serious diplomatic spat.

Iranian state television showed video footage of the group of Royal Navy personnel in blindfolds in a cramped room yesterday and quoted a military source as saying the group would be put on trial "for illegally entering Iranian territorial waters."

The British government summoned Iran's ambassador to London yesterday and called for the men's release.

Adding to British frustrations, Iran also appeared to be denying British diplomats immediate access to the team -- arrested by Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Monday along the Shatt al-Arab waterway that demarcates the southern border between Iran and Iraq.
<snip>

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2004/06/23/2003176156


Iran Hints It May Free 8 Britons Seized on Boats

Widening a diplomatic rift with Britain, Iran said Tuesday that it was still deciding whether to free eight British sailors and marines it had arrested Monday, but indicated that the men could be freed shortly.

Earlier in the day, Iran's state-run television news channel, Al Alam, reported that Iran planned to prosecute the eight men for illegally entering Iranian territorial waters, a claim that was later denied by both Iran's Foreign Ministry and a top military official. The channel also broadcast images of the men wearing blindfolds.

"If the result of the interrogations of those British military men shows that they didn't have any bad intention, they will be released soon," Ali Reza Afshar, deputy chief of culture and propaganda for the Iranian armed forces, told ISNA, a student news agency in Iran.

A separate report from ISNA, which cited "unofficial sources," said that Iran's hard-line Revolutionary Guard had been told to free the men and that the men would be let go "in the coming hours or tomorrow morning."
<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/23/international/europe/23IRAN.html