Daughter of US citizen jailed in Iran has lost confidence in US

The daughter of an environmentalist who is being held captive in Iran said Saturday that she no longer believed or has any confidence that US President Joe Biden would succeed in freeing her father. After being found guilty of spying, Iranian-American Morad Tahbaz, who is also a British citizen, was given a 10-year sentence. He has already spent five years of that time inside prison.

In March 2022, when two other dual nationals, including British-Iranian relief worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, were permitted to leave Iran, he was momentarily freed to home arrest with an electronic tag.

Morad Tahbaz's lawyer Hojat Kermani last year said Tahbaz "was released on bail and with an electronic bracelet."

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His daughter Tara Tahbaz said that although his lawyer claimed in July that he had been granted release, he was now back in custody.

"I think being told since Biden has taken office that our loved ones are a priority, and then seeing no action - it is hard to hold hope," Tara Tahbaz told Reuters. She was in Madrid where she visited from US to meet her relatives.

She stated that at a conference in Washington that is set for early next month, Biden should give her family and the families of two other American detainees in Iran an opportunity to share their tales.

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She said that her father, who is now 67, had prostate cancer and had COVID-19three times in jail.Tahbaz and two other Iranian citizens, Emad Shargi and Siamak Namazi, are all detained on trumped-up espionage allegations, according to the United States, and have been asked to be released by Iran.

US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel tweeted Saturday, "We once again call on Iran to cease unjustly imprisoning foreign nationals for use as political leverage and to release U.S. citizens Emad Shargi, Morad Tahbaz, and Siamak Namazi."

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An oil executive named Namazi was sentenced to ten years in prison in 2016 on suspicion of spying and "assembly and collusion against Iran's national security" for and assisting the United States government.

In 2021, Shargi was found guilty and given a 10-year sentence.

An EU spokesperson last year said at the time of Tahbaz's brief relese said, "The Tahbaz family have confirmed Morad has been released from Evin prison on furlough and is at their home in Tehran." "Morad is a tri-national and we continue to work closely with the United States to urge the Iranian authorities to permanently release him and allow his departure from Iran."

In recent years, Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have detained dozens of dual citizens and foreigners, most frequently on espionage-related allegations.

Tehran does not recognise dual nationality. Rights campaigners have accused Iran of using the detained persons as negotiating chips. However, Iran has denied using these inmates as diplomatic pawns.

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