Iranian diplomat defects, says seeks Norway asylum (In Support of the Green Movement)

[Turborama]

Source: AFP

By Bjoern Lindahl -

OSLO — An Iranian diplomat called Tuesday for an uprising against the Tehran government, as he became the third Europe-based envoy to defect this year and announced he was seeking asylum in Norway.

"I'm seeking political asylum with all my family," Farzad Farhangian, a press attache at the Iranian embassy in Brussels, told reporters in Oslo, adding he intended to join the opposition to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"I'm apologising to the Iranian people. During the last 30 years I was of service to the Iranian people, 23 of them in the diplomatic service, but the deviation that the Iranian republic has reached leaves me no choice," he said.

"I hope to be a voice of the opposition," he added.

Farhangian, 47, is the third Iranian diplomat this year to seek protection in a Nordic country.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i-pXz17CoQGhJ0GnHDcJOONGZagA

[OhioChick]

1. Interesting read n/t