Kidnapped tourist is named
The Foreign Office today named an Irish tourist kidnapped in Iran as Aidan Leahy.
A spokeswoman confirmed that officials were in contact with his family but could not give any more details.
The Irish embassy in Tehran is still working with the Iranian authorities to try and establish further information,” she said.
Armed drugs smugglers kidnapped Mr Leahy along with two German cyclists and demanded more than €2.85m for their release.
Iranian police Colonel Mahdi Ahmadi said the trio were kidnapped on the Bam-Zahedan road in Sistan-Baluchestan Province, close to Iran’s border with Pakistan.
It is believed they were cycling to Zahedan.
A special task force has reportedly been set up and police and security officials are investigating the incident.
Kidnapping of Western tourists is rare in Iran, but Sistan-Baluchestan is known as a major drug smuggling route where smugglers resort to extortion.
A few Western tourists were kidnapped in the country in the late 1990s and foreign tourists are usually advised to exercise prudence while visiting south-eastern Iran.
