An Iranian whose arrest caused a diplomatic rift between Iran and Switzerland filed a request for freedom Monday, saying he is an embassy employee with immunity from prosecution.
In Iran, meanwhile, Swiss diplomats remained under restrictions but were no longer searched outside their embassy in Tehran, a Swiss official said.Switzerland closed its embassy Sunday to protest travel limitations and other actions against the staff. The Swiss have represented Washington's concerns in Tehran since the 1979 occupation of the U.S. Embassy.
The tension began Dec. 23 following the arrest of Zeyal Sarhadi, an Iranian suspected of assisting the killers of former Iranian Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar earlier this year. Bakhtair, a strong critic of Iran's Muslim fundamentalist leaders, was assassinated at his home near Paris on Aug. 6.
Iran says Sarhadi, 25, is an employee of the Bern embassy and is immune from arrest, but the Swiss say he entered Switzerland on a tourist visa in September and never registered as a diplomat or embassy employee. They acknowledge he has been staying at the embassy.
An immediate Federal Court decision on Sarhadi's request for freedom was unlikely. France has until Jan. 10 to file a request for Sarhadi's extradition.