Lawyer for Namazi Family Calls for U.S. Pressure on Iran for the Release of His Clients

The lawyer for Baqer and Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American father and son imprisoned in Iran, urged Donald Trump to tell U.S. officials to pressure Iran regarding the release of the two during the negotiations related to the implementation of the JCPOA that began on Tuesday in Vienna. Baqer Namazi, 80, and Siamak Namazi, 46, were sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Revolutionary Court last October on charges of espionage and contacting the U.S. According to Reuters, Jared Genser, the lawyer for the Namazi family, said he traveled to Vienna with Babak Namazi, Siamak's brother and Baqer's son, to encourage the U.S. delegation to emphasize the issue of the release of the two during the negotiations, adding that he is concerned about the health of the two prisoners. The lawyer stated that a senior official in the U.S. delegation told him on Tuesday that they would directly raise this issue during the discussions regarding the implementation of the 2015 nuclear agreement. A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department did not specifically comment on the Namazis but stated, 'We will use all available means to assist American citizens abroad.' The Iranian government has not specifically commented on the conditions of the Namazis' imprisonment but has always claimed that political prisoners in the country are held in normal conditions and according to standard norms and have access to medical services. Jared Genser told reporters at a hotel near the negotiation venue, 'We believe that if something happens to the Namazis, it would be very bad not just for one side but for both sides. If either the father or son dies during Donald Trump's presidency, it would be a catastrophic failure for Donald Trump and his negotiating skills.' The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arrested Siamak Namazi, an academic and economic activist, in October 2015 while traveling to Iran to visit his family. The same body arrested his 80-year-old father, who had been a governor in Iran before the 1979 revolution and later became a UNICEF official, in December of the same year. A few days after the Namazis' prison sentence was issued in Iran, Donald Trump tweeted during his election campaign, 'Iran has done it again; if I become president, these incidents will not happen again.'