BUCHAREST, Romania A former Iranian judge who called on his country to face charges of corruption has died on Friday in a hotel in Bucharest, the capital of Romania.
Iranian Interpol chief INSA news agency Iran Interpol chief Hadi Shirazad said Romanian police have confirmed the death of Gholamreza Mansuri.
Shirzad said Romanian officials told Iran that the 66-year-old Mansuri "threw himself out the window of his hotel in Bucharest." Iran has said it is under investigation by international police.
Earlier, Romanian police confirmed that a man had fallen from a high floor at the Bucharest Hotel and was pronounced dead at 2:30 p.m. (1130 GMT). They did not recognize him.
About 500,000 euros (60 560,000) bribes have been bribed by Mansuri, who fled to Iran last year, but have denied the allegations, claiming that Iran has surrendered. He said in a video statement last week that he had left Iran for unspecified medical treatment and had returned to face charges of coronavirus travel restrictions.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousawi said the country's IRNA news agency said it had asked Romanian officials to send their country an official report.
The judge recently visited the Iranian embassy and discussed how to return to Iran, "because the Iranian judicial system wanted him by the international police.
Earlier this week, journalist rights groups and Iranian dissidents urged Romania not to oust Mansuri, saying he would be prosecuted in Europe for the mass arrest of journalists while serving as judges in Tehran.
Last week, the German chapter of Reporters Without Borders filed a complaint with federal prosecutors in Germany seeking to prosecute Mansuri over allegations of torture and human rights violations following the arrest of 20 journalists in Iran in 2013.
German prosecutors confirmed on Wednesday that they were considering the complaint, and reporters Without Borders, now Romanian officials, said Mansouri had already moved from Germany.
It is unclear when Mansuri traveled to Romania, but Iranian judicial spokesman Gholmosin Esmaili said Mansuri was arrested there on June 13 and is expected to return to Iran in the next few days.
According to the Romanian authorities, Mansuri was released from custody, but placed under "judicial control", forbidding him to leave the country and to appear before the authorities at his request.
Mansuri was ordered to mass-arrest journalists in 2013 by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a stern president at the end of office hours.
But in 2012, he also banned the reformist Sharp newspaper and detained its editor-in-chief over a cartoon published by officials deemed disrespectful to those fighting in the Iran-Iraq war.
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