People Weekly reports on the situation of the family of Emad Sharqi, an Iranian-American citizen imprisoned in Iran

In an article, People magazine addressed the situation of the family of Emad Sharqi, an American citizen of Iranian descent imprisoned in Iran, and wrote that for the past three years, his wife has always wondered how her husband was doing while he was detained in Iran.

At the beginning of this article, which was published on Wednesday, June 12, it is stated that Bahareh Sharghi's watch has been set to Iranian time for three years, and he has always wondered how his 56-year-old wife is doing.

Emad Sharqi, the director of Sarava Company, was first arrested in Iran in May 2018 and released on bail after a while, but was later summoned to the Revolutionary Court, tried on charges of espionage, and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Bahareh and Emad have spoken sporadically during this time; the last time they were able to speak to each other on the phone was on May 23 of this year, and the time before that was on April 28, about a month before that.

"An innocent man has been detained for the past three years without any valid reason, unable to hug his family and be here with us; it's really hard to accept," Bahareh told People.

According to him, after his arrest, Emad was taken back to Evin Prison and it took ten days for the Islamic Republic's officials to acknowledge that he was in prison, and it took much longer for him to be able to meet his wife.

After being released on bail and summoned to court and sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia, Emad Sharqi decides to flee Iran without informing his lawyer and family, but is arrested at the border of Iraqi Kurdistan.

For a while, Bahareh Amidi or Sharghi thought it would be better to remain silent and not make her husband's situation worse, but finally, in late February 2020, she broke her silence and spoke to The New York Times for the first time.

In part of her interview with the New York Times, she said that Iranian security officials had repeatedly threatened her with "punishment" if she revealed anything about her husband's arrest to American officials or the media.

The Sharqi family's lawyer believes that Emad has become a victim of the Islamic Republic's political games and that Tehran wants to use him, like other imprisoned foreign citizens or dual nationals, as leverage in its international negotiations.

Source: Voice of America