The Iranian intelligence service repeated allegations Sunday that former deputy chief nuclear negotiator Hossein Moussavian had been a spy, dpa reported according to the ISNA news agency.
During the second term of Mohammad Khatami's presidency from 2001 to 2005, Moussavian was the number two man in Iran's National Security Council - the main body in charge of nuclear negotiations - after chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani.
"Moussavian has provided aliens with classified information and this is a clear case of espionage," the intelligence service said in a statement carried by ISNA.
Moussavian was jailed in 2007 on espionage charges but later released on bail.
The intelligence service was referring to remarks earlier this week by Iran's vice-president and atomic chief Ali-Akbar Salehi, who said there was no proof that Moussavian has ever been involved in espionage during his time as deputy chief nuclear negotiator.
"He was therefore sentenced (in 2008) to a two-year suspended jail term and further banned for five years from any official posts within the Islamic Republic," the statement added.
Moussavian, also a former ambassador to Germany, was arrested in 2007 on charges of "connections to foreign elements and the transfer of information to them."
The Moussavian case was considered at that time as part of an internal power struggle between the camp close to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the opposition led by the two ex-presidents Khatami and Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani.