WASHINGTON — Iran was said to be torturing a nuclear scientist months after his departure from the United States.

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The opposition group IranBriefing Foundation asserted that Amiri was being held by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Middle East Newsline reported. The group, citing family members, said Amiri was detained as soon as he arrived in Iran from Washington. The family members said Amiri had first been allowed family visits before he was moved to Teheran's Heshmatieh prison, where he was undergoing torture.

In May 2009, Shahiri disappeared during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Western intelligence sources said Shahiri provided Washington with classified data on Iran's nuclear program, something denied by Teheran.

More than a year later, Shahiri resurfaced in the Pakistan embassy in Washington and sent video messages that demanded his return to Iran. The United States, said to have paid Amiri $5 million, put the Iranian on a flight to Teheran, where he again disappeared. In October, Iranian Vice President Ali Salehi acknowledged that nuclear personnel were relaying classified data to the West.

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