WASHINGTON — Several US citizens have been released from prison to house arrest as a step toward their full release under a detainee deal negotiated between Washington and Tehran, according to a lawyer for one of the families.
Dual nationals Morad Tahbaz, Siamak Namazi and Emad Shargi left the notorious Evin Prison in the Iranian capital of Tehran Thursday. They had been held for years on spying charges that the US government and their families said were baseless. Two other dual nationals, a man and woman whose identities are not yet public, are believed to be part of the deal.
Their release comes more than two years after the United States and Iran began indirect talks over a prisoner swap using interlocutors including Oman, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Qatar. The exact terms of the deal are unclear but likely involve Iran gaining limited access to billions of dollars in assets frozen abroad.
Siamak’s brother Babak Namazi confirmed their release from Evin Prison in a statement, saying he would not rest until the Americans are returned home.
“While this is a positive change, we will not rest until Siamak and others are back home; we continue to count the days until this can happen,” Namazi said. “We have suffered tremendously and indescribably for eight horrific years and wish only to be reunited again as a family.”
For months, it appears the negotiators were nearing an agreement. Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, whose country has long served as a mediator between the United States and Iran, told Al-Monitor in a June 14 interview that the two sides were “close” to reaching a deal on the prisoners.
The announcement comes two days after Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said his country was ready to swap detainees with the United States following “months” of mediation through Qatar and Oman.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not immediately return a request for comment.
Iran is also holding several permanent US residents including retired shipping captain Shahab Dalili and Jamshid Sharmahd, an Iranian-German citizen on death row. Their families had urged the Biden administration to include them in any release.
Namazi was the longest-held American prisoner in Iran, having been arrested by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps days after the nuclear accord was reached in July 2015. He was the only American of six not returned home as part of a detainee swap negotiated by the Obama administration in 2016.
After more than six years in Iranian custody, Namazi’s father, Baquer Namazi, was freed from house arrest in October so that he could receive urgent medical treatment abroad.
Tahbaz, a conservationist and entrepreneur who also holds British citizenship, was jailed in January 2018 along with his colleagues from the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation. In November 2019, Tahbaz was sentenced the following year to 10 years in prison following a closed-door trial.
Shargi and his wife moved from the United States to Iran, their country of birth, in 2017 after their daughters went off to college. After spending eight months in Evin Prison before his release on bail, Shargi was rearrested weeks after Biden’s election. The Revolutionary Court informed Shargi that he had been tried in absentia and sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
