The Iranian government should end the use of dual citizens as political hostages.
May 29, 2019 - Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif's statement today that he "has the authority" to exchange dual-nationality prisoners held in Iran with the United States is a stunning confirmation of the fact that these individuals are being held as political hostages in the country.
Hadi Ghaemi, director of the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, said: “If there was any doubt that dual nationals imprisoned in Iran are being used as political pawns, Mr. Zarif’s statements make it clear that his government has taken such people hostage. The Iranian foreign minister spoke as if he were talking about a commercial exchange while he was talking about people whose lives have been seriously damaged by what has happened to them.”
On April 24, 2019, Javad Zarif, speaking at the Asia Society Institute, said that he had raised the idea of exchanging Iranian-American prisoners held in Iran with Iranians in American prisons with the US government, but had not received a response from them.
He stated in the meeting, which was only possible by personal invitation: "I am putting this proposal on the table... exchange them... I am ready to do this and I have the power to do this."
Previously, whenever Javad Zarif or Hassan Rouhani have been faced with questions regarding political prisoners, they have repeatedly stated that the country's judiciary is "independent" and that they do not have the ability to interfere in such processes.
Hadi Ghaemi said in this regard: "Zarif's words today clearly reveal the politicization of Iran's judiciary and all legal processes in the country."
So far, at least eleven Iranian citizens or dual nationals have been imprisoned in Iran, including Iranian-American citizen Siamak Namazi, who has been in prison since 2015, as well as Chinese-American Princeton University researcher Hu Wang and former US Navy SEAL Michael White.
Dual European citizens are also currently in prison, including Iranian-Austrian citizen Kamran Ghaderi, Iranian-British citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and Swedish-Iranian citizen Ahmadreza Jalali.
In March 2017, the family of dual Iranian-Canadian citizen Kavoos Seyed-Emami was told that Mr. Seyed-Emami had committed suicide while being held for interrogation in Evin Prison.
According to a report by Seyed Emami’s family to the Iran Human Rights Campaign, they were forced to bury Mr. Seyed Emami’s body without an independent autopsy. Mr. Seyed Emami’s wife, Maryam Mobini, who is also a dual citizen, was banned from leaving Iran after her husband’s death.
All of these prisoners were arrested and imprisoned by the Ministry of Intelligence or the IRGC Intelligence Organization, held in solitary confinement for months, and have long been denied access to lawyers and legal advice.
Javad Zarif has spoken about handing over dual-nationality prisoners to the United States, even though government and judicial officials have repeatedly stated that they do not recognize dual-nationality citizens.
In August 2019, an Iranian judge told Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a former employee of the Thomas Reuters Foundation and resident of London, that she would not be released until Britain paid its old debt to Iran, according to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband.
The campaign has learned that the issue of prisoner exchanges has also been raised with some bi-national families in Iran.
It has already imprisoned a large number of political and civil activists, lawyers, workers, journalists, ethnic and religious minorities, and other citizens who do not have dual nationality.
Source: Iran Human Rights Campaign
