PROTESTORS gathered outside a court in London this week as a former senior Iranian diplomat living in Durham City appeared in extradition proceedings.
Hade Soleimanpour, 47, of Kepier Court, formerly Iran's ambassador to Argentina, is accused of involvement in a terrorist attack on a Jewish Centre in the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aires.
He appeared at Bow Street Magistrates' Court charged with conspiring to murder in the attack in 1994, which left 85 dead and 200 injured.
During the protest members of the Iranian community waved banners, demanding Soleimanpour is returned to Argentina to face trial.
An application for bail offering a surety of £500,000 was declined by District Judge Christopher Pratt. Soleimanpour was remanded in custody until September 19.
Soleimanpour, a former diplomat in Spain and attached to the United Nations delegation in Iran, is now a research student in environmental studies at Durham University
He was arrested in the city on August 21. Since February last year he has lived at Kepier Court with his wife and two children. Previously his counsel, Michael Massah QC, said his client had been the subject of a political vendetta and strenuously denied involvement in the attack.
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