An Iranian suspected of helping kidnap a British-Iranian businessman in Dubai has been arrested in Thailand and deported to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Reuters cited an official source familiar with the matter saying on Sunday, April 6th.
Ali Rehmat Assadi will stand trial in the UAE on charges of abducting Abbas Yazdi, who went missing in June, the source added. Yazdi’s wife, Atena, has told UAE media she feared he might have been kidnapped by Iranian intelligence officers.
UAE authorities said in January they had detained three Iranians suspected of being part of a group that had kidnapped Yazdi, a businessman who owns a general trading company in the Gulf Arab emirate.
The official source said on Sunday that Assadi, the subject of an Interpol “red notice” or international wanted persons alert requested by Dubai, was the fourth principal member of the group. There was no immediate word on why Assadi had been in Thailand.
UAE newspaper 7Days has cited Yazdi’s wife as saying the trader and investor was a close childhood friend of the son of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.