The release of three prisoners, including Britain’s Nazanin Zagari-Ratcliffe, from Iranian custody could offer hope to the families of three Americans still behind bars in the country’s hellish prison of Evin.
Renewed attention has been drawn to the cases of Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi and his father Baker Namazi, as well as Iranian-American Emad Shargi after Iran released prisoners on Wednesday.
British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliff left Iran and arrived in Oman on Wednesday before boarding a flight to the UK where she will be reunited with her family.
The British government confirmed that another British-Iranian detainee, Anousheh Ashuri, has been released and Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian-British American who also holds British citizenship, was released on “leave” on Wednesday.
Iranian-American Siamak Namazi (pictured) was arrested while visiting relatives in Iran in 2015.
Iranian-American consultant Siamak Namazi is pictured with his father Baker Namazi (pictured left) in this undated family handout photo. Backer was arrested while visiting his son in 2016.
Emad Shargi, 56, US and Iranian citizen, detained at the end of 2020.
The fate of the three Americans, three citizens, is being discussed separately from the Biden administration’s attempt to revive former President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
“We are negotiating the release of detainees separately from [the Iran deal]a senior State Department official told a press briefing in February.
“But, as we have already said, it is very difficult for us to imagine returning to [deal] while four innocent Americans are behind bars or detained in Iran,” added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with State Department rules.
The Iranians are allegedly open to a prisoner exchange with the United States of their own citizens held in the United States.
They are all held in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, which has faced allegations of psychological and physical torture in the past, and one prisoner imprisoned there in 2015 said he was beaten “for 16 hours a day.”
Farzad Madadzadeh told that he would be beaten up to 16 hours a day in an Iranian prison.
Three guards electrocuted and punched him, throwing him like a “soccer ball”, before returning him to a tiny solitary confinement cell.
Every night for five years, he fell asleep, wondering if death would come for him in the morning or if another day of torture and interrogation awaited him.
The famous Iranian prison Evin. One prisoner once told that he would be beaten up to 16 hours a day in prison.
Farzan’s interrogation lasted three or four months in Evin prison (pictured), although he cannot say exactly how much time has elapsed.
“You are subjected to all kinds of torture – psychological and physical,” he said. “Constant interrogations, constant round-the-clock beatings.
“At any moment you expect something to happen – a new torture or a death sentence.
“You are completely isolated from the rest of the world. The only voice you hear is the voice of death.”
He alleges that the guards brought drugs, including heroin, to the prison to encourage addiction, making it easier for investigators to “hack” inmates suffering from withdrawal symptoms.
Madadzade was arrested in February 2009 and sentenced to five years in prison for supporting the People’s Organization of the Mujahideen of Iran.
The prison has been the main holding place for the country’s political prisoners since 1972, as the prison was the target of U.S. sanctions against Iran. Evin has also faced rape allegations for decades.
All of the remaining American detainees have family members who were allegedly mistreated.
Siamak Namazi
Namazi, 50, an Iranian-American businessman, was arrested while visiting relatives in Iran in 2015.
An Iranian court sentenced Namazi, who was living in Dubai at the time, to 10 years in prison for what they considered “collaboration with a hostile foreign government.”
Namazi’s family claims that his health deteriorated after solitary confinement in this prison.
The UN ruled that Namazi was not given a fair trial.
Namazi became a US citizen in 1993 after moving to the US after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
He returned to Iran after completing his mandatory military service. At the time of his arrest, he was head of strategic planning at the oil and gas company Crescent Petroleum.
There is hope for Namazi’s release, as he was given a new cell in May 2021 at the same time as Tahbaz. However, at the time, the Iranian Foreign Ministry denied these reports.
Siamak’s family tweeted on Wednesday after retweeting the news of Zagaree-Ratcliffe’s release.
“It has been 2347 days since our beloved Siamak was illegally and unfairly taken hostage by #IRGC in #Iran. He didn’t commit any crime! This injustice must end – he must free himself and return home to his loved ones. #FreeTheNamazis #FreeIranHostages #EndHostageDiplomacy,” they wrote.
Backer Namazi
Siamak Namazi’s father, Baker, 85, was arrested while visiting his son in the same Evin prison in 2016.
He was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly collaborating with a hostile government.
In 2018, Backer, suffering from multiple health issues including heart disease, was fired on medical grounds.
In 2020, his sentence was commuted, but Iran denied him the opportunity to renew his passport or leave Iran.
In October of that year, Backer was allowed to undergo heart surgery.
Backer, along with his son and the rest of the family, left during the 1979 revolution after serving as governor under the Shah.
He later became a senior official for UNICEF and worked in the field of relief and development to support relief and community empowerment projects in Iran.
British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliff left Iran and arrived in Oman on Wednesday before boarding a flight to the UK where she will be reunited with her family.
Iranian-British-American was also released on Wednesday
Emad Shargi
Shargi, 56, was originally detained in Iran in 2018, a year after he moved there from the US with his wife.
He was held in custody for several months but was later released and dropped charges that an Iranian court called espionage and national security.
However, in late 2020, the court told Shargi, a dual Iranian-American citizen, that he was sentenced to 10 years for espionage.
Media in Iran reported that he was detained at a checkpoint near the border between Iran and Iraq while trying to escape.
Shargi, like Namazi, is being held in the infamous Evin Prison. His wife, Bahareh, said he rarely received calls at home.
The Sharga family in 2015: Emad (pictured second from right) with wife Bahara and daughters Hannah and Ariana.
He is a graduate of the University of Maryland and George Washington University after moving to the US as a child.
Shargi and his wife decided to return after their daughters got a college job and he was working for a venture capital firm at the time of his arrest.
His wife also claims that Sharga has health problems and is at risk of contracting Covid.
Bahareh Shargi spoke on behalf of her husband and Namazee in an interview with CBS last April.
“They are all innocent,” she said. “They didn’t commit any crimes. And the only reason they were taken away is because they are American citizens to be used as leverage.”
Who are these three prisoners released today in Iran?
Nazanin Zagari-Ratcliffe
Nazanin Zagari-Ratcliffe is a British-Iranian dual citizen who was detained in Iran for nearly six years after serving five years in prison.
The mother of one was detained by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at Imam Khomeini Airport in April 2016 after a holiday visit to Iran where she showed her daughter Gabriella to her parents.
She was later found guilty of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, a charge that she, her supporters and human rights groups deny. Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been under house arrest and unable to leave the country since her release from prison in March 2020.
Anush Ashuri
In August 2017, another British-Iranian citizen, Anousheh Ashuri, was detained in Tehran.
A retired engineer from southeast London has been sentenced to ten years in prison for alleged links to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, long denied by his supporters and family.
In January, he went on a hunger strike in Evin Prison.
Iranian-British-American was also released on Wednesday
Morad Tahbaz
Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian-American who also holds British citizenship, was arrested along with other environmentalists in January 2018.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for “colluding with America”.
The UK government today confirmed that Tahbaz has been released from jail on furlough.