{"id":1012,"date":"2017-04-26T14:56:28","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T14:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2017-04-26T14:58:23","modified_gmt":"2017-04-26T14:58:23","slug":"trump-asked-to-work-for-release-of-2-jailed-by-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1012","title":{"rendered":"Trump asked to work for release of 2 jailed by Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Siamak Namazi and his father, Baquer Namazi,<\/p><\/div>\n

The Washington Post – By George Jahn\u2009|\u2009AP April 25 – VIENNA \u2014 A relative of two Iranian-American citizens imprisoned in Iran says their health is failing rapidly due to inhumane conditions and is urging U.S. President Donald Trump to take \u201cpersonal responsibility\u201d for their lives.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Siamak Namazi and his father, Baquer Namazi, were sentenced to 10-year prison terms last year for \u201ccollusion with an enemy state\u201d \u2014 the United States. Babak Namazi has been working behind the scenes since then, seeking the release of his father and brother.<\/p>\n

Their supporters deny the charges and say the two are being held as leverage on the U.S. Their supporters went public with their campaign Tuesday, appealing to Trump and formally asking the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention for \u201curgent action\u201d to secure their release.<\/p>\n

Babak Namazi and Jared Genser of the Washington-based Freedom Now human rights group said Trump should assume responsibility for the two imprisoned dual citizens.<\/p>\n

Namazi said he is \u201ccounting on the president to take personal responsibility\u201d for his relatives\u2019 lives. Genser cited Trump as declaring \u201cthis doesn\u2019t happen if I\u2019m president\u201d after the Namazi convictions in October and said the U.S. president now needs to be \u201cgood to his word and do whatever is necessary to secure their release.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Namazi family fled Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but appears to have kept business ties in Iran. Siamak Namazi\u2019s arrest in late 2015 followed criticism by hardliners over his advocacy for improved Iran-U.S. ties.<\/p>\n

His 80-year old father is a former UNICEF representative who served as governor of Iran\u2019s oil-rich Khuzestan province under the U.S.-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. He was arrested after traveling to Iran, apparently in efforts seeking his son\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

Both Namazis appear to be ensnared by hard-liners within Iran\u2019s security services who oppose the moderate administration of President Hassan Rouhani and the nuclear deal it struck with world powers.<\/p>\n

Dual nationals in detention have been used as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West, and Genser said U.S. officials in Vienna planned to bring up the case later in the day in what is the first U.S.-Iran meeting on the nuclear deal since Trump took office.<\/p>\n

Babak Namazi said both his father and brother are in Tehran\u2019s notorious Evin prison, out of reach for Iran\u2019s judiciary and under control of the Revolutionary Guard.<\/p>\n

He told reporters his brother sleeps on the concrete floor of a \u201cdark, humid cell,\u201d mostly in solitary confinement; he has been physically \u201ctortured, beaten\u201d and subjected to \u201cpsychological torture\u201d and has lost 12 kilograms (over 26 pounds).<\/p>\n

\u201cHe feels that he has nothing left to live for and (is considering) the taking of matters in his own hands,\u201d Namazi said.<\/p>\n

He said that his father is \u201ccompletely cut off from his doctor\u201d despite serious health problems following triple bypass surgery and needing medication for various other ailments,<\/p>\n

While doctors in Iran refused to disclose his condition after several hospital visits, \u201cwe know from his own rapidly expanding list of self-observed symptoms including severe weight loss, dizziness, exhaustion, confusion, lightheadedness and shortness of breath, that time is not on his side,\u201d Babak Namazi said.<\/p>\n

Other detained dual nationals include Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman sentenced to five years in prison on allegations of planning the \u201csoft toppling\u201d of Iran\u2019s government. Robin Shahini, an Iranian-American, is serving 18 years in prison for \u201ccollaboration with a hostile government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet to be tried on various charges are Iranian-American art gallery manager Karan Vafadari, held along with his Iranian wife, and Iranian-Canadian national Abdolrasoul Dorri Esfahani, who helped negotiate the nuclear deal for Iran.<\/p>\n

Still missing is former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell contributed from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Washington Post – By George Jahn\u2009|\u2009AP April 25 – VIENNA \u2014 A relative of two Iranian-American citizens imprisoned in Iran says their health is failing rapidly due to inhumane<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[297,296,278],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-baquer-namazi","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-siamak-namazi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1015,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions\/1015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}