Iran frees three Finnish anglers

THREE Finnish nationals detained by Iran while fishing near a disputed island in the Gulf were released overnight, a senior Finnish foreign ministry official said.

The three employees of mobile telecoms equipment firm Nokia Siemens Networks apparently drifted into Iranian-controlled waters while on an angling trip from the United Arab Emirates. They were detained on Sunday.

"According to information we have, they have been released," Finnish consular services deputy director Pasi Tuominen said.

According to the Fars news agency, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said: "After mistakenly entering Iran's territorial waters ... the three Finnish citizens have been released."

Nokia Siemens spokesman Barry French said: "As far as we know they are in good condition."

The Finns set out on their trip from the trade and tourism hub of Dubai, where they work.

Their boat strayed into an off-limits area near Abu Musa island, said Esa Hurtig, charge d'affaires at the Finnish embassy in Abu Dhabi.

"This is a sensitive area and it happens."

Mr Tuominen said Iranian officials had apparently accepted that the anglers were in Iranian national waters by accident.

Earlier this year, Iran released a German and a Frenchman held for more than a year after being picked up near Abu Musa while on a fishing trip from Dubai. The pair had been convicted of illegally entering Iranian waters.

The United Arab Emirates and Iran have full diplomatic ties and strong trade links but are embroiled in a three-decade dispute over three strategic islands in the Gulf, through which a third of the world's sea-borne crude oil passes.

Two Swedish men, convicted of espionage after being arrested in 2006 taking photographs of "sensitive military sites" on another Iranian island in the Gulf, were freed in April in what Tehran said was an "act of clemency".

Iranian Revolutionary Guards detained 15 British military personnel aboard two small boats in the northern Gulf in March, triggering a diplomatic storm. Britain denied the sailors were in Iranian waters. They were freed after 13 days.

The UAE released last month 12 Iranian sailors detained in an area north of Abu Musa, one of the three disputed islands which the UAE claims and Iran controls.