In a video shown on Iran TV, he says he has escaped in the US state of Virginia and is now on the run.

Mr Amiri disappeared a year ago while undertaking the Hajj in Saudi Arabia.

Two videos purportedly showing him surfaced three weeks ago. One said he had been kidnapped, the other that he was living freely in Arizona.

In the new video, broadcast on Tuesday, June 29, he says: “I, Shahram Amiri, am a national of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a few minutes ago I succeeded in escaping US security agents in Virginia.

“Presently, I am producing this video in a safe place. I could be re-arrested at any time.”

He says the video broadcast earlier this month, in which someone claiming to be Mr Amiri says he was kidnapped by Saudi and US agents, tortured, forced to say he had defected and was living in Tucson, Arizona, is “completely authentic and there are no fabrications in it.

“The second video which was published on YouTube by the US government, where I have said that I am free and want to continue my education here, is not true and is a complete fabrication.

I was not prepared to betray my country under any kind of threats or bribery by the US government

“I am not free here and I am not permitted to contact my family. If something happens and I do not return home alive, the US government will be responsible.”

He finishes the video by urging Iranian officials and human rights organisations to “put pressure on the US government for my release and return”.
“I was not prepared to betray my country under any kind of threats or bribery by the US government,” he adds.