US Representatives: “Free Hostages Now”

US Representatives have called for the Iranian government to release Iranian-Americans held in Iran, including father and son Siamak and Baquer Namazi.

In a resolution submitted to the House on May 4, Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Nita Lowey urged Iranian officials to release unconditionally all US citizens and legal residents with immediate effect. The resolution said that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps was holding at least four US citizens and two permanent residents hostage. 

On April 25, 2017, the US State Department said it had “raised with the Iranian delegation its serious concerns regarding the cases of U.S. citizens detained and missing in Iran, and called on Iran to immediately release these US citizens so they can be reunited with their families’’ during  a meeting to implement the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in Vienna. 

On the same day, Jared Genser, the lawyer for Siamak and Baquer Namazi, appealed to the United Nations to take immediate action on their cases. Genser said there were increasing concerns about the health of his clients, and Babak Namazi, Siamak’s brother and Baquer’s son, who joined Genser at the press conference, spoke of his family members’ treatment in prison. “My brother, Siamak, has experienced the worst of Evin Prison in the 18 months that he has been detained there and for reasons beyond comprehension singled out for even harsher treatment. He has been continually subjected to lengthy interrogations, which have persisted even after his conviction. He is held in a dark, humid cell that lacks even a bed to sleep on, forcing him to sleep on the concrete floor. And most of his time in that cell has been spent in solitary confinement.”

The submission to the UN said the continued detention of the Namazis “clearly constitute[s] clear, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and may very well rise to the level of torture.” 

Prior to the Vienna meeting, on April 13, the US Department of the Treasury sanctioned the Tehran Prisons Organization and its former head, Sohrab Soleimani. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that “the sanctions against human rights abusers in Iran’s prisons come at a time when Iran continues to unjustly detain in its prisons various foreigners, including US citizens Siamak Namazi and Baquer Namazi.”

The following prisoners were named in the resolution:

Siamak Namazi, US citizen, jailed on October 15, 2015

Baquer Namazi, US citizen, jailed on February 22, 2016 

Karan Vafadari, US citizen, jailed on July 20, 2016

Afraid Niasari, permanent resident, jailed on July 20, 2016

Nizar Zakka, permanent resident, jailed on September 18, 2015

In September 2016, a closed court in Tehran sentenced Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen and US resident, to 10 years in prison. It also ordered him to pay a $4.2 million fine. Following the verdict, US-based advocacy campaigners renewed appeals to the US State Department to take steps to help free him. “For a period of six months he was in solitary confinement,” said David Ramadan, co-founder of Friends of Nizar Zakka. “He did not receive any of the medical treatment he needed, and he lost an incredible amount of weight. He has not been allowed to see either the Lebanese consul in Iran, since he is a Lebanese citizen, or the Swiss consulate which handles American affairs in Iran.”

Art gallery owners Karan Vafadari and Afraid Niasari were charged with attempting to overthrow the Islamic Republic and recruiting spies through foreign embassies. Revolutionary Guards Intelligence Organization agents arrested them initially for allegedly serving alcohol in their home and hosting mixed-gender parties. 

The May 4 House of Representatives resolution also mentioned a fourth US citizen held in Iran, but did not state the prisoner’s name in accordance with his or her family’s wishes. It also raised the case of US citizen and former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared from Iran’s Kish Island on March 9, 2007. It said the US government had ‘‘secured a commitment from the Iranians” that its officials would “try and gather information about Mr. Levinson’s possible whereabouts.’’