Family of Americans Held in Iran Urge Biden to Make Their Release a Priority

WASHINGTON—The household of an Iranian-American jailed in Tehran and his father, who’s unable to go away Iran, urged U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday to make their freedom a precondition of any offers between the US and Iran.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of twin nationals and foreigners, together with a number of Individuals, in recent times, totally on espionage fees. Rights activists accuse the nation of attempting to make use of the detentions to win concessions from different international locations, although Tehran dismisses the cost.

Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman in his mid-40s, was arrested by Iranian safety forces in October 2015. Iranian authorities detained Baquer Namazi, 84, a number of months later when he tried to go to his son.

“My household expects that President Biden and his administration won’t make concessions or offers with Iran that don’t embody, that certainly requires [as] a precondition the discharge of my father and Siamak,” Babak Namazi advised a web-based information convention.

The pair have been sentenced in October 2016 to 10 years in jail on fees of collaborating with “a hostile authorities”—the US. The household denies the allegations and considers the pair “hostages,” Babak Namazi stated.

Simak Namazi is in Tehran’s infamous Evin Jail. Babak Namazi stated his father—who underwent triple bypass surgical procedure earlier than he was detained and coronary heart surgical procedure whereas jailed—was launched from the jail on medical furlough in 2018 and had his sentence commuted to time served in 2020.

However Babak Namazi stated his father was unable to go away Iran for pressing medical therapy as a result of he has been denied a brand new passport and remained beneath a journey ban.

“It’s past outrageous that Iran continues to play with my father’s life,” he stated.

Iran stated on Sunday that communication between Tehran and Washington about U.S. residents detained in Iran had been performed through the Swiss embassy that handles U.S. pursuits reasonably than via direct contact.

By Jonathan Landay