Case deepens for Slovak 'spying' in Iran

A Slovak man arrested in Iran on suspicion of spying for the United States is planning a tell-all book about his mysterious ordeal and says he may even one day return to the Islamic Republic.

Matej Valuch was only freed by Iran this month after protracted and top-level diplomatic negotiations that involved senior officials at the European Union.

In Slovakia, however, his case continues to be shrouded in secrecy and unanswered questions, with local media comparing the story to a James Bond plot.

"I want to say that I am no spy," declared Valuch as he stood next to Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák at a news conference Feb. 8, a day after returning to Bratislava.

With his parents watching, Valuch said he was still too tired to answer questions about his detention, which began when he was accused of spying for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

"I'm glad I'm back in Slovakia. I want to thank the people who worked on my case," Valuch said.

The 26-year-old, who sports a ponytail and described himself as an "independent recruiter and project manager" on his former LinkedIn page, said he could not explain why Iran had considered him a spy.

"Perhaps they themselves know best. … I operated in Iran as a headhunter, and I worked on similar projects, for example, in Slovakia and Budapest."

Slowly, more details are emerging about exactly how Valuch ended up in Iranian custody, apparently without the knowledge of his parents or Slovak diplomats for months. Since returning to his parents' home, Valuch has confirmed his imprisonment actually began in August last year, not last month as previously thought, and that he spent the first 40 days in solitary confinement.

Last month, Iranian authorities announced that "Matti Waluk" [sic] and other "CIA undercover agents" had been discovered by intelligence officers as part of an international operation.

In an online report, the Mehr News Agency, which is closely linked to Iran's Intelligence Ministry and National Security Agency, cited an alleged confession from Valuch. "In 2008, I registered an employment website, NGR, and signed contracts with European prestigious companies to introduce expert human force to them. In 2009, an individual calling himself Steven Logano, contacted me via Prizma company e-mail, purportedly to cooperate," the news agency quoted Valuch as saying.

"In the first days, I recognized that his real name was not Steven Logano, and that he is a senior CIA officer, with the mission of infiltrating Iranian elite circles and collecting information on Iranian developments in high-tech industries," the report added.

On Jan. 16, Iranian state television broadcast what it said was a "confession" by Valuch, whom it accused of spying on the country's scientific program. In a report titled "The hunter trapped," Valuch said he was hired by the CIA and ran a job recruitment agency as a front.

When asked about the video, Slovakia's foreign minister said it was not appropriate to "go into these details" because it could complicate Valuch's life, but experts always maintained the taped testimony was unreliable in any case.

Valuch has now revealed the video was produced back in September shortly after his arrest, and that he was taken out of prison just so the Iranians could film him walking in the street. When asked to explain his taped confession, Valuch says he was told by his Iranian interrogators that the people he'd been dealing with were actually CIA agents, and he could not prove otherwise.

"They informed me that it was actually the reason I was arrested, and I simply accepted the information," he said.

Despite his six-month ordeal, Valuch says he holds no ill feelings toward Iran and insists he was always treated "politely" and not tortured. From behind bars, he managed to ring his family in Slovakia on two occasions but did not tell them about his predicament.

Valuch's family had previously said that their son told them over the phone from Iran last year that he was involved in rescue works after an earthquake in the country's north.

Lajčák says Valuch was only released after "difficult and complicated" bilateral negotiations but has given few further details. "We reached an agreement with Iran that they would release our citizen from prison and give him permission to leave the country," he said.

Iranian authorities eventually released Valuch from a prison in the late evening Feb. 6, but Slovak diplomats had reportedly not been told of their countryman's imprisonment until January - six months after his arrest in Tehran.

Valuch's release did not cost Slovakia "a single cent" according to Lajčák, and Bratislava did not commit itself to anything to secure his freedom. However, experts in Slovakia have questioned this official version of events.

"Our diplomacy has probably promised to support Iranian diplomacy at international forums," security analyst Martin Kováčik said. "This can be attributed to the fact that Matej Valuch was not a CIA agent or any other agent of the secret service."

Some in Slovakia have also questioned how a man who could not speak the Farsi language could gain the employment that Valuch did, but experts argue this is also a compelling reason why he could not possibly have been operating as a spy inside Iran.

Jakub Kulhánek from the Association for International Affairs in Prague says Valuch was probably caught up in Iranian politics ahead of this year's presidential elections.

"Once Iran realized he was not drawing much attention, they let him go," Kulhánek says. "We'll probably never know exactly why he was arrested, but it seems Valuch was naive and gullible, and was probably in the wrong place at the wrong time."

With speculation about his story continuing, Valuch has announced he now plans to write a book about his experience. The working title of the project is reportedly University of Solitude and will concentrate on his time in solitary confinement.

"I want to say that, on the basis of my case, people should not be afraid of countries like Iran. They are very beautiful countries with a rich culture, cuisine, good people. I would just not recommend any business activity, because it is possible you could be associated with something wrong, or have to explain it, regardless of whether you are involved or not," Valuch warned.

Andrew Greene can be reached at
agreene@praguepost.com