WASHINGTON, June 30 (UPI) -- A man claiming to be an Iranian nuclear scientist said in an Internet video that he is on the run after evading U.S. authorities in Virginia.
A man claiming to be Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri released a video message saying he has escaped from U.S. agents, the BBC reports.
"I, Shahram Amiri, am a national of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a few minutes ago I succeeded in escaping U.S. security agents in Virginia," he said in the video message broadcast on Iranian television.
Tehran accuses intelligence services from Saudi Arabia of cooperating with U.S. counterparts to "kidnap" the scientist.
Iranian state television played a short clip in early June of a man who said he was Amiri. The Fars News Agency reported the man said he had been kidnapped in Medina while on a pilgrimage. Fars reported that the man said he was abducted in a joint Saudi-U.S. operation and tortured by the CIA
Amiri in the latest video said the latest report from him referenced in Fars was authentic.
U.S. officials denied he was abducted. American news reports in March said Amiri defected and was cooperating with the CIA in its investigations into the Iranian nuclear program.
"I am not free here and I am not permitted to contact my family," the man said in the latest video message. "If something happens and I do not return home alive, the U.S. government will be responsible."
