Baqer Namazi's Son Seeks Permission for His Father's Exit from Iran

Babak Namazi, the son of Mohammad Baqer Namazi, an Iranian-American citizen, on Thursday in Washington urged Iranian authorities to allow his father to leave Iran for medical treatment, citing his deteriorating health. Babak Namazi, who appeared before reporters alongside his family lawyer after meetings with White House and State Department officials, said, "I am here to plead with the Iranian government to show mercy and allow my father to leave Iran for treatment of his illnesses." Mohammad Baqer Namazi is a former UNICEF official in Iran and was the governor of Khuzestan before the 1979 revolution. He was arrested in March 2016 while traveling to Iran to follow up on the status of his elder son, Siamak Namazi. Mr. Namazi suffers from heart disease and was hospitalized earlier this year due to low blood pressure and irregular heartbeats, undergoing surgery. Baqer Namazi is currently on medical leave outside of prison. Jared Genser, the Namazi family's lawyer, announced in September that his 82-year-old client has been on "medical leave for a significant period" due to illness and old age. Siamak Namazi, Mohammad Baqer Namazi's elder son, who also holds dual Iranian-American nationality, was a businessman attempting to foster closer ties between Iran and the West. He has been imprisoned since October 2015 during a trip to Tehran. Both were sentenced to ten years in prison for "collaborating with a hostile government". Jared Genser and Babak Namazi emphasized on Thursday that their request from the Iranian government is "purely humanitarian, not political." Meanwhile, the family lawyer added, "It is clear that what has been done in the past two years has yielded no results." Currently, at least three American citizens or permanent residents are imprisoned in Iran. In addition to Siamak Namazi, another American citizen, Xiyue Wang, is currently imprisoned in Iran. Karen Vafadari, an American citizen, along with her husband Afrin Nissari, and Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen with permanent residency in the U.S., have also been imprisoned in Iran. It was reported at the end of July that Mr. Vafadari and Ms. Nissari had been released on bail. The United Nations condemned the arrests of these individuals in April, describing the Iranian government's actions as part of a "common pattern" of detaining dual nationals. Earlier in September, Jared Genser had called for the annulment of the Namazi sentences based on Iran's use of the "Treaty of Amity between Iran and the U.S." to lift sanctions. The U.S. State Department and the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran condemned the "arbitrary detentions" of dual nationals and foreigners as a "common pattern in the Iranian government" in separate reports last December. The U.S. State Department had previously expressed "deep regret" over Baqer Namazi's return to prison while he "urgently needs ongoing medical assistance." In February 2018, Babak Namazi had also requested Iranian authorities to allow his father to serve the remainder of his sentence at home due to his deteriorating health. Analysts believe that Iran uses the detention of dual nationals or foreigners as a bargaining tool in negotiations with the West. At the end of Babak Namazi's press conference, when reporters asked him about the reasons for the arrest and imprisonment of his father and brother in Iran, he said, "I do not know; I only know that my family is innocent."