Have you ever heard of Veles (pronounced “veh-less”)? I don’t expect you have. It’s a small town in a European...
On March 9, Judge Korman denied Afrasiabi’s motion requesting to continue the paid consulting work for Iran. “Defendant is free to pursue any form of employment that does not cause him to violate the terms of his release, which include the condition that he will not violate the law,” Korman ordered. Afrasiabi replied in an email: “I am 64 years old, publicly smeared, under house arrest … what kind of employment can I possibly got? It is not realistic.”
Prosecutors had opposed allowing Afrasiabi to continue the paid work for Iran’s UN mission. “The defendant in essence asks the Court to permit him to resume committing the crimes with which he is currently charged. The Court lacks the authority to permit the defendant to commit further crimes, and the motion should be denied,” the federal prosecutor handling the case, Ian Richardson, wrote to Judge Korman. Richardson wrote that unrestricted contact with the Iranian officials would “create an unacceptable risk that the defendant could arrange with them to flee.”