Tehran court rules against US

His case stirred controversy in the US itself at the time. Congress said it had been assured by the administration that seizing criminal suspects abroad without local co-operation would be reserved for extraordinary cases involving terrorists or international drug traffickers.

The Bahamian government also expressed its "utter disapproval" of the customs agents' actions, saying it had not been consulted or informed of the operation in advance.

Alikhani's action in Iran follows an unsuccessful attempt in a Florida court to sue the US Government for $360 million.

The prolonged case collapsed in 2001 when the court ruled that he had agreed as a condition of his release from prison not to sue the US authorities. His lawyers argue the condition was invalid, because Alikhani made it under the threat of an indefinitely long prison term.

Ironically, Alikhani is an advocate of improved relations between Tehran and Washington. He runs a nonprofit organization in Nicosia which organized a groundbreaking reconciliation meeting in Paris five years ago between one of the former Iranian students who seized the US embassy, Abbas Abdi, and one of the former US hostages, Barry Rosen.

Alikhani draws a distinction between his case and those of Westerners held in Lebanon by pro-Iranian groups. "My case is directly related to the US, but with the Lebanese hostages, there was no direct connection to Iran. They went for Iran, but they never sued the kidnappers, Hizbollah, or the Lebanese government."

Alikhani has a separate claim against the US government still pending before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

• Staff writer Seth Stern contributed to this report from Boston.

Hossein Alikhani says his saga began in July 1990, when he faxed a request from his offices in Cyprus seeking to buy $1.6 million worth of spare parts for gas generators from a Florida company. He planned to ship the equipment through Germany to Libya for use in a government oil field.

The company replied the parts could not be supplied because of American sanctions against Libya, and Alikhani did not pursue the deal. However, the Florida company tipped off US Customs about his interest in shipping the equipment to Libya and agreed to set up a sting operation to collect evidence against him.

Ten months later, undercover customs agents, who had set up a fictitious company, contacted Alikhani to see if he was still interested in buying the parts.

Over the next few months, Alikhani's company bought some equipment which was shipped to Libya through Germany.

Alikhani says he was invited to the Bahamas to meet his "business partners" where the undercover agents invited him to board a private aircraft for a deep-sea fishing trip to another Bahamian island.

Thirteen minutes into the flight, the agents pulled out their badges, identifying themselves to the stunned businessman. He was arrested, transported to Florida and arraigned in West Palm Beach.

For the first 30 days, Alikhani was interrogated in a series of Florida hotels, where he says he was shackled to his bed at night, before being moved to a Miami prison where the inmates included Manuel Noriega, the former dictator of Panama.

He was asked to assist the authorities in identifying suspected US exporters of oil-field equipment to Libya, but says they were interested only in small trading companies, not multinational corporations or major US manufacturers.

Alikhani says the agents promised he could go home after he had cooperated. Instead, he was later indicted and jailed for violating the Libyan embargo. In February 1993, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy, was sentenced to time served and was released.

His lawyers argued Alikhani was not bound by the laws against Libyan trade, which apply only to US citizens. Also, they add, because he was arrested illegally, the federal court had no jurisdiction over his case and his plea deal was invalid.

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