The Killed “Scientist” Was Not a Scientist

Rooz Online

As conservatists in Iran have been increasing their criticism over staffing changes at the country’s Atomic Energy Organization which some media characterized as the “expulsion of nuclear scientists,” the former director of the agency Fereidun Abbasi whose appointment to head the organization during Ahmadinejad’s tenure caught all observers by surprise, revealed that Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan who has been called “the nuclear scientist martyr” by Iranian authorities and all official media, was not a scientist at all but was involved in commercial activities. Thirty two year-old Roshan and his driver were killed in a terrorist attack in January 2012 in Tehran.

Abbasi, who turned angry when he was replaced with Ali Akbar Salehi to head the Atomic Organization, and who subsequently used every occasion to criticize Salehi, has now raised a new assertion which contradicts the intense drive of the official state propaganda machinery during the last 18 months in presenting Ahmadi Roshan to be a nuclear scientist. He says Roshan was not a scientist at all but a businessman engaged in trade. The Iranian regime has named tens of streets, circles, schools, universities, etc in his name across the country. Ayatollah Khamenei too has met with Roshan’s family members.

Using the “scientist” characterization of Roshan who used to be a member of the para-military Basij was so intense by the Iranian regime that Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator at the time Saeed Jalili officially referred to him repeatedly as the “martyred scientist.”

When he ran the Atomic Organization Abbasi himself referred to Roshan as “the most outstanding nuclear scientist” and praised him in unusual terms.

According to Rooz No publication, Abbasi spoke with a reporter from a new publication called Ramz Oboor where he said that “Roshan was the trade deputy at Kala Electronic Company. This company was responsible for managing the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility and Roshan was in a ‘special’ position at the Atomic Organization and was involved in the provision of specialized (nuclear) equipment. He worked to acquire the equipment needs of the Natanz plant.”

It is interesting to note that Roshan’s father has until now echoed what Abbasi had been saying and has criticized the Rouhani administration’s nuclear deal that was reached with the West last year. He has labeled himself the “father of the martyred nuclear scientist.”

What negates the heavy propaganda pursued by Ahmadinejad’s administration in this and other areas are the contradictory statements that are now emerging about the events of the former president. Many claims presented by Ahmadinejad himself or his aides have come under attack. Recently the Majlis chief Ali Larijani had asked, “So where are those thousands of nuclear centers and hundreds of thousands of centrifuges?” Since Rouhani’s tenure, Salehi has come under attack for “firing dedicated nuclear scientists.” He has sharply rejected the accusations and has said that a scientist has a very specific definition that does not apply just to any person, and now his own predecessor has unveiled a major lie of that period.

In rejecting the criticism against his agency, Salehi revealed that the six individuals who had been recently dismissed from the Atomic Organization worked in the business section of the agency and qualified this statement by adding, “The same place where Roshan worked.”

Ayatollah Khamenei has used the term “young nuclear scientist” in almost all of his public speeches about Roshan.

Since this new revelation, Roshan’s title has now changed from “young nuclear scientist” to “the young nuclear martyr.”