The five Americans who had been detained in Iran for years have just reached Doha, Qatar, as they make the journey back to the United States.
Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi, and Morad Tahbaz had all been held for more than five years, while two other Americans whom U.S. officials said want to retain their privacy boarded a plane to leave Iran on Monday. Two of their relatives who had been barred from leaving the country were also included in the deal, and they will be reunited with their loved ones in Washington, D.C., in the coming days.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters he spoke to them once they landed in Doha.
Their release comes after months of negotiating and years of advocacy and heartache from their loved ones and nonprofit organizations. The five previously detained Americans had been held in the notorious Evin Prison in Iran.
Namazi celebrated his newfound freedom, thanked those responsible, and lamented others being detained in a statement from his lawyer.
“While in Evin Prison, I experienced the worst of humanity every day. But outside of those walls, there were countless people who reminded me of the best of humanity,” he wrote. “Over the past 44 years, the Iranian regime has mastered the nasty game of caging innocent Americans and other foreign nationals, and commercializing their freedom. By now Evin Prison is virtually a dystopian United Nations of Hostages. We must urgently channel the grievous pain of the victims of this wickedness into the kind of measures that would upend the cost-benefit calculations of Tehran’s foul business. For if we keep this vile path to profit free of risk and toll, this venal regime will keep treading on it. Again. And again. And again.”
Namazi was detained in 2015 and later sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of having “relations with a hostile state” that were intentionally condemned, while Emad Shargi was detained in 2018 and also sentenced to a decade in prison in 2021 on unsubstantiated espionage charges. Morad Tahbaz was arrested in January 2018 during a crackdown on environmental activists and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
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“Mr. President, the tale of my eight-year captivity is ultimately a stark reminder that once our citizens are seized by a rogue state, we are left with no good options,” Namazi added. “Let me end by reminding everyone that the greatest fear of any political prisoner is to be forgotten. While today the focus is on celebrating the recovery of five innocent Americans from Iran, we must renew our commitment to the fight to secure the release of all those wrongly imprisoned or taken hostage in Iran and around the world, including foreign or dual nationals.”
President Joe Biden granted clemency for 5 Iranians and freed $6 billion of Iranian funds that had been unavailable to them.
