Iran releases Austrian citizen jailed for unspecified crime

Iranian authorities have released Austrian citizen Christian Weber, detained for alleged crimes committed in Iran’s West Azerbaijan Province, to Austria’s ambassador in Tehran, the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency reports.

Austria had said in 2022 one of its citizens was arrested in Iran for charges not related to protests that broke out in the country after the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish Iranian woman, in custody.

The news agency says the Austrian citizen was freed in consideration of Islamic mercy. He was handed over to his country’s ambassador to arrange his exit, the agency says.

Mizan did not specify the crime for which Weber was jailed. Calls to the Austrian embassy before regular office hours went unanswered.

The death of 22-year-old Amini in September 2022 while in custody for allegedly flouting Iran’s Islamic dress code unleashed months of protests in the biggest challenge to the Islamic Republic’s clerical leaders in decades.