A former Iranian researcher at EPFL is now in the hands of Italian justice. He was arrested on Monday in Milan, at the request of the United States. The Americans accuse him of having provided Iran with technologies that allowed the Tehran regime to manufacture drones which were then allegedly involved in the deaths of three American soldiers in Jordan. To do this, he created a company in 2019 on the EPFL campus and routed transfers between the United States, where his associate, who was also arrested, operated, and Iran.
EPFL confirmed to Ticino television RSI that the man in question had indeed completed a postdoc at EPFL from 2019 to 2022, under contract with a laboratory and that since then, he has no longer collaborated with the school. In the commercial register, on the other hand, his company is still registered as active. However, EPFL indicates that no one works there. It would above all be a “mailbox company”.
“On several occasions, travel data indicates that MA returned to Iran quickly after receiving, in Switzerland, documents from the American company,” we can read in a document from the American justice system. However, on January 28, 2024, three American soldiers were killed by a drone on a base in Jordan. After investigation, it turned out that the drone’s navigation system had been manufactured by an Iranian company that collaborates with the Revolutionary Guards… and which was co-founded by the same MA
It is therefore for having circumvented American sanctions which prohibit doing this type of trade with Iran and for having “conspired to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization resulting in death” that the man was arrested. As for the connection with Switzerland (which represents American interests in Iran), political consequences are already imaginable. Iran summoned the Swiss ambassador after the arrest of the two men.
