TEHRAN – Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Friday that the United States has taken several Iranian scientists hostage without charge and even refuses “medical furlough” for them amid the threat of the deadly coronavirus disease.

This is while U.S. courts have rejected “absurd charges” against these innocent scientists who are held in “horrific facilities”, Zarif lamented.

“The U.S. has taken several Iranian scientists hostage, without charge or on spurious sanctions charges, and not releasing them; even when its OWN courts reject the absurd charges,” Zarif tweeted.

In his tweet, the chief Iranian diplomat asked the U.S. to “release our scientists”.

Foreign Minister Zarif also attached to his tweet an image of an interview published on Friday by the British newspaper Guardian quoting Iranian scientist Sirous Asghari kept by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as saying that the ICE’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic may kill him and many other inmates.

According to Press TV, the Guardian published an interview with Asghari, professor of materials science and engineering, in which he detailed the “inhumane” jail conditions at his ICE facility.

Asghari, who was exonerated in a U.S. sanctions trial last November, said that little is being done to protect inmates from the virus in his “filthy and overcrowded” detention center.

PA/PA