The Man Who Refused to Spy | The New Yorker

The Man Who Refused to Spy  | The New Yorker

A scientist refused to spy — and suffered

When materials scientist Sirous Asgari declined to spy on his home country of Iran for the United States, he became snarled in a Kafkaesque battle with the US criminal and immigration systems, reports The New Yorker. The country accused him of stealing trade secrets for Iran before he was cleared in a US court of all charges. The same day, “he began a seven-month descent down a spiral of squalor, into a vast carceral system beyond the reach of the U.S. judiciary. Within the realm of ICE [the US immigration agency] there would be no public documents, no legal hearings” — only uncertainty, and the looming threat of COVID-19.

The New Yorker | 36 min read