Iran Stresses Efforts to Release Japanese Student

Iran on Wednesday assured of its continued efforts to set a kidnapped Japanese student free, but meantime, called on Tokyo to refrain from direct intervention in the case “Negotiations and efforts continue for his release and we hope that he (the Japanese student) will be released as soon as possible,” Director General of the Interior Ministry’s Public Relations department Majid Malekan told FNA here on Wednesday.

“The security and law enforcement officials are striving to release this Japanese citizen unharmed,” he said.

The 23-year-old student, Satoshi Nakamura, had been traveling alone in southeastern Iran after teaching Japanese and English in Nepal with a volunteer group.

He was kidnapped on October 8 as he headed from his hotel for the ancient mud-built citadel of Bam, which was one of Iran’s main tourist draws until it was destroyed in a 2003 earthquake that killed 31,000 people.

Meantime, the Iranian official stressed that the issue should be resolved by Tehran, and called on Tokyo to refrain from direct involvement in the case.

“In similar cases in Iran and other countries, including the recent case of the Korean citizens who had been taken hostage by the Taliban (in Afghanistan), it has been proved that non-intervention of the country whose citizens have been taken hostage can assist facilitated solution of the case,” Malekan said.

He said any direct involvement of the countries whose nationals have been abducted “might lead to the misuse of the hostage takers”.

Meanwhile a Japanese special envoy arrived in Iran Wednesday to follow the case.

Itsunori Onodera, the senior vice foreign minister, plans to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and other officials to call for continued efforts to free Satoshi Nakamura.

“I want to ask for the safe release and rescue of the Japanese national,” Onodera told Japanese reporters after arriving in Tehran early Wednesday, as shown in television footage in Tokyo.

“I sincerely hope that we will reach a favorable outcome,” he said.

A bandit named Esmail Shahbakhsh has been blamed for the kidnapping and is asking for the release of his arrested son in exchange for Nakamura.

The bandit is said to be the same man whose gang in August abducted two Belgian tourists who were later freed.

Japan has historically had cordial relations with Iran, both before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.