Swiss diplomats may have been assassinated in Iran, their intelligence service has said.
The bleak warning comes after the mysterious deaths of four Swiss citizens in Iran which were considered as potential repercussions to their ties with the US.
Russia, China and North Korea have all heightened their intelligence activity against Switzerland but Iran had particularly increased ‘the visibility of Swiss personnel to hostile services’, the Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) claimed.
Switzerland acts as an intermediary between Washington and Tehran and has represented US interests in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
The regional conflict would have increased the risk of ‘direct pressure’ on Swiss personnel in Iran, with diplomats prime targets for surveillance, according to ex-intelligence officials.
Sylvie Brunner, the Swiss deputy ambassador to Tehran, was allegedly pushed from the 17th-floor of her balcony in 2021, according to a former officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
‘They view the Swiss embassy as a point for the Americans. In Iran, they believe some embassy staff are working for the CIA,’ he told SRF, who conducted the joint investigation with fellow Swiss broadcaster RTS into the deaths.
He claimed that it was ‘an espionage mission that went wrong’ but Iranian officials have ruled the death a suicide.
Intelligence services have warned that Swiss diplomats may have been assassinated in Iran, including Sylvie Brunner who was allegedly pushed off her balcony
Iranian authorities have refused to share the full investigative file with Bern and removed several of her main organs before her body was repatriated (pictured: a cordon tape at the garden outside Ms Brunner’s 17th-floor apartment)
‘They view the Swiss embassy as a point for the Americans. In Iran, they believe some embassy staff are working for the CIA,’ a former officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said
Many at first believed the stories of mental health issues – even though Iranian emergency workers said there was no clear reason why she would take her own life at the time.
But the official who made the comment was dismissed and has since been retracted.
Iranian authorities have refused to share the full investigative file with Bern and removed several of her main organs before her body was repatriated.
This prevented a comprehensive toxicology test, with the pathologist unable to rule out that the involvement of ‘one or two persons’, a Swiss-commissioned forensic review said.
Two years later, a Swiss defence attaché collapsed in a hotel in Tehran, suffering from severe head and abdominal injuries, and died months later after flying home.
SRF reported that the man had been working on a sensitive assignment and may have been exposed while on a mission but Iran have said the death was natural.
Not three months later in September 2023 did a Swiss Embassy employee get stabbed and shot while walking to work.
This was dismissed as a robbery by Iranian authorities but Swiss analysts cast doubt on this explanation, arguing this would be unlikely in such a heavily policed capital.
Pictured: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military personnel shout anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli slogans during a Friday prayers ceremony at the University of Tehran
Pictured: People attend a memorial ceremony for scientists, civilians, and senior officials killed in Israeli attacks in Tehran where participants carried anti-U.S. placards, and photos of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
And then in January 2025, a Swiss tourist in his 60s hanged himself in Semnan prison after he was jailed on spying allegations, Provincial Judge Mohammad Sadeq Akbari told Iranian state media.
His body has been returned to Switzerland but the results have not yet been made public.
Switzerland’s Foreign Ministry are working towards ‘full clarity’ on the deaths but do not have the investigative authority to do so on Iranian soil, they told SRF.
Ms Brunner’s brother, Vincent, told SRF that he ‘always believed it was murder’.
He said that before she died clear boot prints were left in her apartment, meant as a clear warning to Ms Brunner that she was being watched.
Swiss officials were allegedly made aware that Ms Brunner felt she was being intimidated and harassed by Iranian operatives but their police were unable to help.
The family are considering civil action after the Office of the Attorney-General closed the criminal probe into the diplomat’s death over lack of evidence.
Some Swiss politicians had called for a ‘transparent international investigation’ although no inuqry has been scheduled.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .