Source:

October 21, 2010

LOS ANGELES — A California businessman who spent more than two years in an Iranian prison after being accused of passing money to a rebel group is returning home.

Seventy-one-year-old Reza Taghavi is due at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday night where he will be reunited with family.

Taghavi, who regularly visits Iran to conduct business, was jailed on allegations that he passed $200 to someone suspected of links to a rebel group called Tondar. Tondar is suspected of a 2008 mosque bombing that killed 14 people.

Taghavi was never charged and denies knowingly supporting the faction. The Orange County man was freed Saturday after 29 months in prison.