US President Trump urges Iran to return ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson, but Tehran insists he’s a ‘missing person’

The US is offering US$25 million for information about what happened to Levinson, who disappeared from Iran’s Kish Island on March 9, 2007

He was on a mission for CIA analysts who had no authority to run spy operations, and Iran has since offered contradictory statements about his whereabouts

Reading Time:3 minutes

Former FBI agent Robert Levinson - how he would look like now after five years in captivity in Iran. Photo: AP

Published: 12:37pm, 11 Nov 2019Updated: 7:10pm, 11 Nov 2019

Iran on Sunday said an open Revolutionary Court case involving an ex-FBI agent who disappeared there in 2007 on an unauthorised CIA mission “was a missing person” filing, not a sign that the man was being prosecuted.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi’s comments come as a new Iranian acknowledgement of the case involving Robert Levinson renewed questions about his disappearance. The US is offering US$25 million for information about what happened to Levinson, who disappeared from Iran’s Kish Island on March 9, 2007.

President Donald Trump meanwhile called for Iran to turn over Levinson, whom he described as “kidnapped”.

Speaking to journalists, Mousavi said Levinson “has no judicial or criminal case in any Islamic Republic of Iran court whatsoever”. “It is normal that a case is opened like it’s done for any missing people anywhere in Iran,” Mousavi said.

However, Iran only acknowledged its Revolutionary Court had an open case on Levinson in a filing to the United Nations. Associated Press obtained a copy of a UN report on the acknowledgement on Saturday.