Masoud Mosaheb

Massud Mossaheb is an elderly IranianAustrian dual national based in Vienna. He was born in 1937 in Iran and moved to Austria in 1965 attaining a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the Vienna University of Technology. Before the Islamic Revolution he worked in Iran for the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1977–78. He later worked for the German technology company Siemens where he was the technical project manager of Austrias first space mission.

According to Mossahebs daughter he worked pro bono for the IranianAustrian Friendship Society ÖIG founded in 1991 by the then–foreign ministers of Iran and Austria. Mossaheb served as secretarygeneral of the society. Its focus was “developing economic relations between the two countries with ÖIG acting in close cooperation with the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber and the Tehran Foreign Trade Office.” The group states it “has numerous contacts with Iranian authorities and can informally assist in initiating and maintaining contacts.”

The regime arrested Mossaheb in late January 2019 when he travelled to Iran with a delegation from MedAustron an Austrian radiation therapy and research firm seeking to establish a centre in Iran. The president of ÖIG former Austrian defence minister Werner Fasslabend expressed surprise that the Iranians took Mossaheb as a hostage given the latters devotion to building IranianAustrian cooperation. “There is no connection” between Mossahebs arrest and his consulting work for the MedAustron project” Fasslabend said.

Amnesty International stated that the regime initially detained him in a hotel room where they deprived him of sleep and questioned him without access to legal counsel eventually forcing him to sign documents. He was then transferred to Tehrans notoriously brutal Evin Prison where he was placed in solitary confinement for weeks refused health care threatened with physical abuse denied sleep and not permitted access to legal counsel. Because Iran does not recognize dual citizenship Mossaheb has not been granted Austrian consular access.

Amnesty International released an alert in November 2020 claiming Mossaheb suffers from “serious medical conditions including heart and kidney failure diabetes and high blood pressure for which he needs ongoing specialist medical care and daily access to medication.” Amnesty said the regime refused to let him see a cardiologist outside the prison.

In January 2021 a secret audio recording of Mossaheb was released. In it he pled with listeners to “help me and rescue me from this hell.” He said he suffers from multiple medical illnesses including diabetes a faulty heart valve neuropathy cystic lung disease and a kidney cyst. Mossaheb added that he also had a stroke received nine rounds of kidney dialysis and contracted COVID19. Mossahebs daughter added that he “now suffers from asthma shortness of breath and severe depression.”

Mossaheb languished in prison for nearly one year before his trial which commenced on January 4 2020. According to a proMossaheb Twitter account on May 20 the Revolutionary Court sentenced him to ten years imprisonment for espionage and an appeals court upheld Mossahebs sentence on July 13. However alJazeera did not report that Mossaheb had been convicted until August 11.

On 2 June 2023 a spokesperson for the Belgian government reported the release of the three saying the two Iranians had dual Austrian nationality. The spokesperson claimed Iran released the three in return for Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi as part of a prisoner swap which also saw Iran releasing Belgian national Olivier Vandecasteele last week.

Three released prisoners who Mr Mosaheb was one of them had a stop in Oman for medical tests. Oman has long been an interlocutor in interactions between the West and Iran. The country has so far mediated the release of several foreign citizens and dual nationals.