An Iranian nuclear scientist who says he was abducted by CIA agents a year ago returned home from the United States early on Thursday saying he was pressured to lie about Iran's nuclear programme. Washington denied kidnapping Shahram Amiri and insisted he had lived freely in the United States.
A US official said, however, that the United States, which suspects Iran of secretly developing nuclear weaponry, had obtained information from him. Amiri, 32, repeated claims he was kidnapped in 2009 when on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia and transferred to the United States. The scientist also said Israeli agents were involved in interrogating him. Asked why Amiri was going back, a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Iranian authorities could have put pressure on his family back home. But Amiri, holding his 7-year-old son at a news conference at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport, said: "My family had no problems".