Iranian-British National Jailed in Iran for Half a Year

An Iranian-British dual citizen has been imprisoned in Iran for six months, the activist HRANA news agency reported on February 14. 

Shahram Namavar, who holds citizenship from both Iran and the UK, has been held in Tehran’s Evin prison since his arrest in August 2023.

His legal status remains uncertain. There has been no official information about the reason for his arrests or the charges he faces. 

Namavar was apprehended by government forces in Abadan, in southwestern Khuzestan province, while visiting Iran to see his mother, and was subsequently transferred to Evin prison. 

Western governments and rights groups have repeatedly accused the Islamic Republic of taking dual and foreign nationals hostage for the sole purpose of using them in prisoner swaps or as a bargaining chip in international negotiations.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the minister of foreign affairs of the Islamic Republic, has dismissed such accusations as "Iranophobic false propaganda."

On February 10, an Iranian lawyer said that the Tehran Revolutionary Court had sentenced a dual Iranian-Swedish citizen named Saeed Azizi to five years in prison.