Charge d'Affaires of Iran's Embassy in Beirut, Hamid-Reza Dehqani said on Friday that Iran plans to file a lawsuit against Israel for kidnapping four of its diplomats in early 1980s.
The four - Mohsen Moussavi, Ahmad Motevasselian, Kazem Akhavan, and Taqi Rastegar-Moqaddam - were kidnapped in 1982 in Lebanon when that country was occupied by Israel and soon after that transferred to the occupied Palestine.
Dehqani told IRNA on the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the kidnapping of the Iranian diplomats "According to the articles of Geneva Convention, the occupiers are responsible for the lives of the civilians, and we know that the Israelis were the occupier force in Lebanon at the time." The Iranian Embassy's Charge d'Affaires in Beirut noted, "Iran's lawsuit would be delivered at the International Court of Justice, as well as a Lebanese judiciary court."
He asked the international community to contribute to the freedom of the Iranian diplomats that have spent over a quarter of a century at "horrendous" Israeli prisons.
Israel said the four were killed by Lebanese militants and denied any involvement in the case, but Dehqani argued "There is no proof about having got killed and therefore, we believe they are alive and imprisoned in Israel."
