Dutch Gov't Investigating Reported Iranian Death Sentence Against One of Its Citizens

October 29, 2007 The Associated Press IHT.com

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The Dutch government was investigating reports Monday that a Dutch citizen has been sentenced to death in Iran on terrorism charges, a spokesman for the foreign minister said Monday. Abdoullah Al-Mansouri, who has dual Iranian and Dutch citizenship, was reportedly arrested in Syria last year and turned over to Iranian authorities, who accuse him of terrorism. His son Adnan, who lives in the Netherlands, was reported as saying his father was forced to make a confession and that he feared he will be executed. The Dutch branch of human rights group Amnesty International also cited a Syrian rights group as reporting over the weekend that Al-Mansouri had been sentenced to death. Dutch supporters call Al-Mansouri a human rights activist, and he was given a royal decoration in 2001 for his work. He is reportedly a leader of an opposition group called the Ahwazi Liberation Organization, which supports the Arab Ahwazi people in Iran.