Siamak Namazi he is guilty of being American. Baquer Namazi to be his father. I have been in prison in Iran for two thousand days: Siamak was arrested in 2015 on charges of “collusion with an enemy country”, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Baquer has been in prison since 2016 after being lured to Iran with the excuse that he could see his son again. No American has been detained as long in Iran as Siamak, his lawyers say.
Iran nuclear deal, the US ready to resume “indirect” talks
by our correspondent Alberto d’Argenio
On Saturday, Brother Babak returned to ask the Biden administration to do everything possible to free his family, as the attempts made by previous administrations so far have not produced results. “I hope and expect President Biden to take immediate, new and bold approaches to getting my family out of jail. At the same time, I implore the Iranian authorities to act with humanity and dignity, guaranteeing their freedom. My brother and my father are innocent men and neither will be able to survive this ordeal much longer ”.
When he was still in the White House Donald Trump there was talk of a possible exchange of prisoners with Iran, but nothing was ever done.
The nuclear negotiations in Vienna
Next Tuesday in Vienna, at the meeting of the joint Iranian nuclear commission, the Americans will also be there. The delegation will have talks with Russians, Europeans and Chinese, not a direct dialogue with the Iranians, but it is still the first time that the two sides have spoken to each other since the White House Joe Biden, or even if in a mediated form. However, the issue of prisoners will not be on the table: the Biden administration has already made it clear in the past that it intends to keep it separate from nuclear negotiations.
Secretary Blinken’s appeal
Yesterday the Secretary of State spoke about the Namazi case, Antony Blink: “2,000 days ago, Iran arrested Siamak Namazi as a US citizen. When his father, Baquer, flew to Iran to free him, he was imprisoned and is now prevented from leaving. All US hostages and illegitimate detainees must be released and reunited with their loved ones. #FreetheNamazis, ”he wrote on his Twitter profile.
On Friday he had also intervened on the matter Robert Malley, the US special envoy for Iran who is likely to lead the delegation to Vienna. “We have American detainees unjustly detained in Iran. We cannot forget them. And whatever happens on the nuclear side, whether it succeeds or not, our goal will be to bring them home ”.
Foreign nationals detained in Iran
In Iran, there are at least 12 dual nationals in prison on charges ranging from anti-state propaganda to national security threats. Human rights organizations have long denounced what they call the “hostage policy”, which uses the detention of dual national citizens to exchange them as pawns in political negotiations with other states, as is happening in the case of the Anglo-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliff, in jail in Iran since 2016. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is caught in a tangled matter involving the UK’s £ 400 million historic debt to Iran.
“It is amply clear that Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other dual British-Iranian citizens who have been incarcerated in Iran are being held hostage until the UK pays off the debt arising from the sale of arms to the shah of Iran in half of the 1970s, “the British newspaper recently wrote The Guardian.
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