Former Iranian diplomat Nosratollah Tajik, who recently won a UK High Court ruling blocking his extradition to the United States, says he will take legal action against British Home Secretary Theresa May for a six-year foot-dragging on his case, Press TV reports.

Tajik, who walked free from a London court on Thursday, said that six years of delay in the extradition process have left negative impacts on his “health and family”.

He said he could not describe the “tough” conditions he had faced since his arrest in 2006 for allegedly trying to export US-made night-vision goggles to Iran.

Tajik, the former Iranian ambassador to Jordan and an honorary fellow of Durham University, argued that the allegations against him were politically motivated and said, “In a sense, I had been taken hostage here for six years.”

At the time of his arrest, he insisted that he had simply negotiated the purchase of goggles for a student who needed them for research.

On November 27, the High Court ruled that the former Iranian diplomat should be discharged and gave 14 days to the US government to appeal the ruling.

“In the absence of any justification offered by the requesting state, the US, the court could not find there was reasonable cause for the delay [in the extradition process]. It ordered Mr Tajik's discharge,” ruled Lord Justice Moses of the High Court.
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News ID 183648