PARIS: A senior diplomat at the Iranian embassy in Finland has quit his job to protest against his country's treatment of its citizens.
Hossein Alizadeh said he had held deputy head of mission's post at the embassy in Helsinki.
He said he informed the embassy four days ago of his decision to quit after staying off the job for a month.
''I don't consider myself any more a diplomat standing beside a brutal Iranian regime,'' Mr Alizadeh said in a telephone interview from the Finnish capital.
''I have let the embassy know that I have resigned from my job and I'm not any more a diplomat. I am a political dissident.''
Iran cancelled yesterday's planned release of US hiker Sarah Shourd, who was accused of spying and illegally entering the Islamic republic, because of unresolved legal issues.
Because the judicial process has not been fulfilled in the American defendant's case, her release had been ruled out, prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said.
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