'Kidnapped' nuclear scientist on way back to Iran via Qatar

Shahram Amiri, who surfaced in the US after going missing for more than a year, left for home today promising to reveal full details of his claimed abduction.

The Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, who surfaced in Washington after going missing for more than a year, left for home today promising to reveal full details of his claimed abduction to the United States. Iran's foreign ministry said Mr Amiri would arrive in Tehran early tomorrow morning via Qatar. Before leaving Washington, where he had taken refuge in the Pakistani embassy, Mr Amiri said in an interview with Iran's state television that he had been abducted at gun point in Saudi Arabia in May 2009.

He said he had been approached by besuited Farsi-speaking men in a car in the Saudi city of Medina, where he was on a pilgrimage, and offered a ride to the mosque. "As I opened the door, one of the passengers pulled out a gun and told me to be quiet. They gave me an injection and when I came around I was in a big plane. I was blindfolded. It was likely a military plane," he said. In a separate interview, he told the English language Press TV channel that he would reveal full details of his ordeal when he is back on home soil.