The body of a senior Iranian diplomat missing since the Haj stampede in Saudi Arabia in September has been identified, Iranian media said on Wednesday, quashing speculation he was kidnapped.
The corpse of Iran’s former ambassador to Lebanon, Ghazanfar Roknabadi, 49, was identified through DNA tests, the ISNA news agency reported citing reliable sources.
Iranian media did not give details of how and when he died.
“My brothers travelled to Saudi Arabia and after seeing his body announced they have identified him,” the former diplomat’s brother, Morteza, was quoted by the state television website as saying.
Roknabadi’s body will be repatriated on Thursday, he added.
He was attending this year’s Haj when the stampede broke out.
More than 2,200 people, including 464 Iranians, were killed, according to tallies given by foreign officials, in what was the deadliest disaster in the pilgrimage’s history by far.
Until last year, Roknabadi was Tehran’s envoy to Beirut, a highly sensitive post.
The stampede created strong tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Many Iranian officials had said Roknabadi was still alive and asked Saudi Arabia to send him home.
“Our intelligence indicates that he is still alive, and we ask Saudi Arabia to return him alive,” Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said in November.
