Fugitive Iranian judge found dead in Romania
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Forensic investigators carry the body of Iranian judge Gholamreza Mansour.
PHOTO: AFP
BUCHAREST (AFP) - A fugitive Iranian judge sought by Teheran for alleged corruption was found dead after apparently falling from a hotel room in Bucharest, Romanian police said on Friday (June 19).
The police said an investigation was under way after a foreign national aged 52, who they identified as Gholamreza Mansouri, was found in the early afternoon.
It was not clear if he had fallen or been pushed from his sixth-floor room.
Mansouri had been arrested last week in the Romanian capital and was placed on probation for a month pending an Iranian extradition request.
Mansouri was wanted in his homeland over alleged corruption within the country's judicial system amid reports he accepted €500,000 (S$780,000) in bribes.
Reporters Without Borders, meanwhile, has accused him of torture and crimes against humanity following the 2013 detention of 20 journalists in Iran.
The pressure group filed a complaint with the public prosecutor general's office in Karlsruhe, Germany, on June 12.
The group had said at the time it believed Mansouri was "probably currently in Germany for medical treatment" and demanded his "immediate arrest."
