The United States investigates the case of an American imprisoned in Iran

President Joe Biden’s administration says it is investigating the apparent recent detention in Iran of a dual-citizen U.S. citizen who is also an Iranian citizen, the first U.S. national publicly reported to have been imprisoned by the Islamic republic since a rare prisoner exchange between both countries in September 2023.

In response to a query from the Voice of America Last week, the State Department said in a statement that it was “aware of reports that a dual U.S.-Iranian national has been arrested in Iran.”

The reports refer to Reza Valizadeh, a former journalist for the sister network of Voice of AmericaRadio Farda, who had left the Persian-language network in 2022. He flew to Tehran in February to visit his family after living in the West for 14 years, according to his last post on the X platform in August.

Iran views Radio Farda and other Western-based Persian media as hostile entities because they draw attention to public dissent and protests against the country’s authoritarian Islamist rulers.

“We are working with our Swiss partners, who serve as the United States’ protective power in Iran, to gather more information about this case,” a State Department spokesperson said.

“Iran routinely imprisons US citizens and citizens of other countries unjustly for political reasons. This practice is cruel and contrary to international law,” the spokesperson added.

An informed source inside Iran told the Persian Service of the VOA that Valizadeh was arrested in Iran in late September, accused of collaborating with foreign-based Persian media. The source requested anonymity because of Iran’s repeated harassment of people who publicly provide comments to Western media.

The Iran-based human rights group Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) and the US-based media rights group Committee to Protect Journalists reported in mid-October that Valizadeh had been detained in Tehran’s Evin prison without access to a lawyer since his arrest. The reports cited two sources: one close to Valizadeh’s family and another who previously worked with the journalist.

Iran’s mission to the UN in New York acknowledged having received a request from the VOA for comment on Valizadeh’s case last week, but did not provide a response.

Skylar Thompson, deputy director of HRAI in Washington, said in a message to the VOA that the State Department “should use all available diplomatic channels to investigate Valizadeh’s detention and ensure his immediate and unimpeded access to counsel.”

In his last message on August He said he decided to return voluntarily, even without having received a prior written or verbal commitment that the IRGC would not prevent his visit.

In Valizadeh’s previous message on X, published in February upon his arrival in Iran, he said that Iranian intelligence agents had summoned and pressured his relatives to persuade him to return.

He Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has tried to persuade Iranians living abroad that they have nothing to fear upon returning.

“We must assure them that if they return to Iran, we will not file a complaint against them. We will not harass them and we will not prevent them from leaving,” Pezeshkian said in an August interview with the state ISNA news agency.

Jason Brodsky, policy director at the US advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, told the VOA that Valizadeh’s arrest should be a warning to Iranians with dual nationality that Tehran’s assurances cannot be trusted.

“There have been cases over the years where Iranians abroad get clearance from a government entity in Iran to enter, and then a competing agency catches this person and takes them hostage,” Brodsky said.

Valizadeh was due to stand trial before Revolutionary Court Judge Abolghassem Salavati, according to sources cited by HRAI and independent Iranian journalist Nejat Bahrami, who first reported Valizadeh’s arrest in a social media post on October 13.

Salavati has been sanctioned by the United States government for severely punishing Iranian citizens and dual nationals for exercising their freedoms of expression or assembly.

“It appears that Valizadeh is being detained unfairly,” said Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian political scientist who was herself detained in Iran between 2018 and 2020 on what Western nations said were trumped-up security charges.

In an email to VOAMoore-Gilbert wrote that Valizadeh’s journalism “would certainly make him a person of interest to the IRGC.”

“The fact that he was referred to the Salavati Revolutionary Court is also revealing, as this judge is the IRGC’s favorite to deal with political cases, including the unjust detention of foreign and dual nationals,” he wrote.

Granting the wrongful detention designation to a U.S. citizen means that U.S. Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens is authorized to work with a coalition of government and private sector organizations to secure the detainee’s freedom.

Designations are granted if a review by the secretary of state concludes that the U.S. citizen’s case meets the criteria defined in the Levinson Act of 2020.

Any member of Valizadeh’s family residing abroad or their legal representatives should “immediately apply” to the U.S. secretary of state for a wrongful detention designation, Moore-Gilbert said. Valizadeh’s recent work as a journalist should make the process “relatively simple” in contrast to other cases, he added.

The State Department spokesperson who sent the statement to VOA said the agency “continually monitors the circumstances surrounding detentions of U.S. citizens abroad for indicators that detentions may be unjust.”

The Biden administration secured the release of five Iranian Americans it considered wrongfully detained in Iran in a September 2023 deal in which five Iranians in the United States also obtained pardons from detention and prosecution.

That deal is the only prisoner exchange between the United States and Iran in Biden’s term so far. It also involved the United States allowing $6 billion in Iranian funds frozen under U.S. sanctions in South Korean banks to be transferred to Qatar for Iran to use for humanitarian purchases. A U.S. Treasury Department spokesperson told U.S. media this month that the funds remain “immobilized” following Iran’s support for the October 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

“Valizadeh’s detention raises questions about whether the Iranians are holding him hostage for a swap involving the movement of those assets in Qatar or something even bigger,” Brodsky said.

“Every time we make a deal like that, it emboldens the Iranians to take more hostages,” he added. “Therefore, we need a comprehensive strategy, working with our allies and partners, to employ common sanctions against Iran for hostage-taking that involve sanctions and diplomatic isolation.”

[Este informe fue elaborado en colaboración con el servicio persa de la VOA]

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