Iranian-American Prisoner Reportedly Charged with Collaboration with US Gov’t
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Siamak Namazi, a dual Iranian-US citizen imprisoned in Tehran, is said to have been charged with working with the hostile government of the United States, his lawyer Seyyed Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei told the Tasnim News Agency.
“My client’s case is under investigation … and an indictment has yet to be issued for him,” Alizadeh Tabatabaei said on Monday.
“Namazi’s mother has met him, and as she says, my client’s charge is cooperation with the US government,” he added.
Namazi, said to be a businessman, has been under arrest since September 2015.
He was one of the prisoners who were previously urged by US officials to be released within any prisoner exchange mechanism.
His name was raised when Iran and the US swapped several prisoners in mid-January 2016.
The Washington Post’s reporter Jason Rezaian, former US Marine Amir Mirzaee Hekmati, a pastor named Saeed Abedini, and Nosratollah Khosravi were the prisoners released by Iran on January 16 in exchange for 7 Iranian prisoners released by the US.
Namazi, however, was not freed at that time.
The prisoner swap came on January 16, hours before the enforcement of a nuclear deal finalized by Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) back in July 2015.
