Dual Nationals Targeted for Legal Cases

Abdulkarim Lahiji, the former president and now honorary president of the International Federation for Human Rights, comments on the imprisonment of the Namazi family, stating that as a lawyer in Iran, he cannot definitively express an opinion since he has not seen their case. However, he notes that dual nationals have always been targeted for a type of legal fabrication. In an interview with Radio Farda, he points out that despite heavy charges in previous cases against dual nationals, all accusations have disappeared shortly after agreements between their respective governments. According to Foreign Policy, the UN Secretary-General has sent a confidential letter to Hassan Rouhani, the President of the Islamic Republic, requesting the release of 81-year-old Mohammad Baqer Namazi on humanitarian grounds. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Iran has been a member of since 1975, states that those whose health is concerning due to old age should be placed under special conditions at home instead of in prison. Lahiji emphasizes that the UN Secretary-General's letter to the Iranian President regarding the humanitarian release of Mohammad Baqer Namazi aligns with this principle. Mohammad Baqer Namazi, a former UNICEF representative in Somalia, Kenya, and Egypt, and a former governor of Khuzestan before the revolution, was arrested in Iran in March 2016 while his son, Siamak Namazi, a former planning director at Crescent Petroleum, had been arrested a few months earlier during his trip to Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced both father and son, who are American citizens, to 10 years in prison on charges of espionage. In this context, the US representative to the UN has called for the release of Siamak and Baqer Namazi, highlighting the increasing efforts by the US government to free dual nationals imprisoned in Iran.