Iran sentences two U.S. citizens to 10
years in prison
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[October 19, 2016]
By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin and Yeganeh Torbati
DUBAI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Iranian
court has sentenced an Iranian-American businessman and his elderly
father to 10 years in prison on charges of cooperating with the United
States, Iranian media reported on Tuesday, the latest sign of an
intensifying crackdown against Iranians with ties to the West.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in October 2015 detained Siamak
Namazi, a businessman in his mid-40s with dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship,
while he was visiting family in Tehran. The IRGC in February arrested
his 80-year-old father, Baquer Namazi, a former Iranian provincial
governor and former UNICEF official who also has dual citizenship.
Both men were sentenced to 10 years in prison for spying and cooperating
with the U.S. government, said Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari
Dolatabadi, according to the Fars news website, without specifying when
exactly the sentences had been handed down.
The U.S. State Department's deputy spokesman, Mark Toner, said the
father and son had been "unjustly detained" in Iran, and called for
their immediate release.
The sentences were the latest against dual nationals directed by
hardliners who are powerful in Iran's judiciary and security forces, in
the aftermath of Iran's historic nuclear deal with the United States and
other world powers last year.
Washington and Tehran have not had formal diplomatic relations since the
1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah.
Babak Namazi, Siamak's brother and Baquer's son, called the sentences
unjust.
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"My father has been handed practically a death sentence," Babak Namazi
said in a statement.
Baquer Namazi has a serious heart condition and other medical issues
requiring special medication, his wife wrote on Facebook in February. On
Tuesday, UNICEF called for his release on "humanitarian grounds."
Baquer Namazi previously served as UNICEF's representative in Somalia,
Kenya and Egypt. He also ran Hamyaran, an umbrella agency for Iranian
non-governmental organizations.
Siamak Namazi, who was born in Iran and educated in the United States,
worked as a business consultant in Iran for several years, and was
well-known in Washington circles. He most recently worked for Crescent
Petroleum, an oil and gas company in the United Arab Emirates.
Mizan, the Iranian judiciary's official news site, published on Sunday
video images of Siamak, set to dramatic music and spliced together with
images of U.S. President Barack Obama and Washington Post reporter Jason
Rezaian, who was released from an Iranian jail in January after more
than 18 months in detention.
The video showed Siamak's U.S. passport and identification card from the
United Arab Emirates, where he previously lived. It then showed him
standing and holding his arms outstretched, as if being searched, while
being filmed by at least one other cameraman. The website said the video
depicted "the first images of the moment of Siamak Namazi's arrest."
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![](../images/101816pics/news_h7.jpg)
Iranian-American consultant Siamak Namazi (R) is pictured with his
father Baquer Namazi in this undated family handout picture. Iranian
authorities this week arrested the elderly father of an American
jailed in Iran since October 2015, the man's family said on February
24, 2016. REUTERS/Handout via Reuters
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The father and son were each given a single court session lasting a
few hours before the sentences were given, Babak Namazi's statement
said.
HARDLINE BACKLASH
Iran's deal with world powers lifted most international sanctions
and promised Iran's reintegration into the global community in
exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
The potential detente with the West has alarmed Iranian hardliners,
who have seen a flood of European trade and investment delegations
arrive in Tehran to discuss possible deals, according to Iran
experts.
Security officials have arrested dozens of artists, journalists and
businessmen, including Iranians holding joint American, European or
Canadian citizenship, as part of a crackdown on "Western
infiltration."
Four other Iranian-Americans, including Rezaian, were released from
Iranian prisons in January as part of a prisoner swap with the
United States.
The arrests have undermined Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's goals
of reviving Iran's business and political ties with the West, as
well as pushing for more political and social reforms at home, Iran
experts and observers said.
In a 2013 visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly,
his first as president, Rouhani told an enthusiastic crowd of
Iranian-Americans that his government would make it easier for them
to visit Iran. He has criticized his hardline opponents, saying they
sought their own interests, not those of the Iranian people.
(Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Will Dunham)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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