Middle East News

Man slain in Tehran was student, not nuke scientist

Jul 23, 2011, 23:25 GMT

Tehran - An Iranian man who was killed on Saturday in Tehran was not a nuclear scientist - as initially reported by state media - but an electronics student.

The 35-year-old Dariush Rezaei-Nejad was shot down in front of his residence by two men on a motorcycle. His wife and child were reportedly wounded in the attack and taken to a nearby hospital.

State media reported earlier Saturday that Rezaei-Nejad was a university professor and one of the experts at the Iranian Atomic Organization (IAO). Fars news agency, however, reported that Rezaei-Nejad was an electronics student and making his masters at the Khajeh Massir university in Tehran.

The Tehran governor's office refrained from confirming reports that Rezaei-Nejad was an IAO official. The office said that there was no clue yet to the assassin or assassins, but intense police investigations were underway.

In late November 2010, Majid Shahriari, a physics professor and reportedly also an IAO member, was killed by a bomb attached to his car.

Iranian officials at the time accused agents of the United States and Israel of being behind the killing in a bid to intimidate Iran in the dispute over Tehran's nuclear programmes.