Iranian scientist free to leave US - Clinton

The US insists that an Iranian nuclear scientist who has turned up in the country is there voluntarily and is free to leave. The state department rejected claims by Tehran that Shahram Amiri, who surfaced at a Pakistani embassy building, had been detained by US agents, the BBC reports.
Mr Amiri vanished more than a year ago. In June, three videos apparently showing him - and containing contradictory information on his whereabouts - emerged. "He has been in the United States of his own free will and obviously he is free to go," State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said.
In the first video, Amiri said that he had been kidnapped by US and Saudi agents, in the second that he was living freely in Arizona, and in the third that he had escaped from his captors. Moreover, theauthorities in Tehran said they had proof that Mr Amiri was being held in the US. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters at a news conference that Mr Amiri had been kidnapped during the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and taken to the US against his will.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for her part, said Mr Amiri was free to go, and highlighted the case of three young Americans held by Iran since July 2009 and accused of illegally entering the country.