American citizen Baquer Namazi flies out of Iran after six years of detention

An American citizen arrived safely in Oman on Wednesday after greater than six years in detention in Iran, however considered one of his sons stays imprisoned in Tehran, his household stated.

Baquer Namazi, 85, flew to Oman’s capital, Muscat, from Iran and is because of journey on to the United Arab Emirates, the place he’ll bear pressing surgical procedure to clear a “extreme blockage” of an artery, his household and lawyer stated in an announcement.

His son Siamak Namazi, 51, was granted a one-week furlough for the primary time in seven years of imprisonment earlier than his father flew in a foreign country.

“It’s not possible to articulate and describe sufficiently how I’m feeling. I’m simply so grateful that after so lengthy, I’ll shortly have the ability to embrace my father once more,” Babak Namazi, Baquer Namazi’s son and the brother of Siamak Namazi, stated in an announcement.

Nevertheless it was a “bittersweet” day as a result of his brother and two different Americans stay imprisoned, Namazi stated.

“My brother Siamak in addition to People Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz stay detained in Iran and our nightmare won’t be over till our whole household and the opposite People are reunited with their households,” he stated.

Namazi expressed gratitude to Oman for its position in enabling his father’s journey out of Iran, the United Arab Emirates for internet hosting his father for medical remedy in Abu Dhabi, the U.N. secretary-general for working to get his father launched, and the governments of Switzerland, the UK, Qatar and the U.S., “which has labored on my household’s instances for years.”

He additionally thanked present and former staff of UNICEF, who he stated supported his household, and human rights teams and journalists, who “all helped me preserve public consideration on my household’s plight.”

Baquer Namazi, who had labored as a senior official for UNICEF earlier than he retired, was arrested in February 2016 when he traveled to Iran to enchantment for the discharge of his son Siamak, a businessman, who had been arrested in 2015. 

Iranian authorities charged each males with espionage, however human rights advocates, the United Nations and the U.S. authorities have stated that the fees had been with out basis and that the lads had been unlawfully detained. 

Baquer Namazi was positioned on medical furlough in 2018, and ultimately his case was declared settled, however he had confronted a journey ban and couldn’t depart the nation.

The Biden administration on Tuesday denied a report by Iranian state media that the U.S. would launch billions of {dollars} to Iran that U.S. sanctions have blocked in South Korea now that Baquer Namazi had been allowed to depart the nation.

“We perceive the lifting of his journey ban and Siamak’s furlough had been associated to medical want. They weren’t a part of any deal or something like that,” State Division deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel advised reporters, including that experiences on the contrary had been “completely false.”