UAE jails Iranian for 10 years for aiding nuclear program

Businessman sentenced over attempt to smuggle electric motor and other devices into Islamic Republic

Illustrative: Iran's heavy water nuclear facilities near the central city of Arak. (CC-BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia/Nanking2012)
Illustrative: Iran's heavy water nuclear facilities near the central city of Arak. (CC-BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia/Nanking2012)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A court in the United Arab Emirates has sentenced an Iranian businessman to 10 years in prison after being convicted of trying to bring an electric motor and other devices there to further Iran’s nuclear program.

A report by the state-run WAM news agency on Wednesday only identified the businessman by the initials S.M.A.R.

It said he was convicted of “violating the international ban on nuclear weapons.” It wasn’t clear how the material the Iranian was convicted of trying to bring into the Islamic Republic would be used to manufacture an atomic bomb.

Iran long has described its nuclear program as peaceful. Western fears over it prompted sanctions later lifted by the nuclear accord with Iran, which capped its enrichment of uranium.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the conviction.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press.

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