Student dies mysteriously in Iran’s nuclear research facility

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 10 – A university student’s death was described as “suicide” by the authorities in Malek Ashtar University in Shahin-Shahr, near the central Iranian city of Isfahan, but the mysterious circumstances of the death in a highly secretive research establishment jointly run by the Ministry of Defence and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Coprs are raising serious questions. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jul. 10 – A university student’s death was described as “suicide” by the authorities in Malek Ashtar University in Shahin-Shahr, near the central Iranian city of Isfahan, but the mysterious circumstances of the death in a highly secretive research establishment jointly run by the Ministry of Defence and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Coprs are raising serious questions.

University officials have said that the unnamed student committed suicide on Monday. A university official reached by telephone said that fellow students tried to save the life of their friend, but he died before reaching a local hospital. The official refused to provide further details. Iran’s official media have not reported the death.

Since its creation in 1986, Malek Ashtar Industrial University has grown into a major research centre for Iran’s military-industrial establishment. The university is divided between two campuses in Tehran and in Shahin-Shahr.

In November 2004, the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) claimed that sensitive equipment related to clandestine nuclear activities by the Ministry of Defence had been transferred from Shian facilities in Tehran to Malek Ashtar University near Isfahan, after earlier revelations by the NCRI compromised the secrecy of Shian.

The group also named several nuclear scientists, who it said were working on Iran’s secret nuclear programme. Some, including Ali Abadi and Mohammad-Hossein Ghezel-Ayagh, worked in Malek Ashtar University. Western diplomats in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is based, later told reporters that Iran had turned down several requests by the IAEA to interview some of the scientists named by the NCRI.