Hostages Still Languish In Iranian Prisons Years After Arrests

(New York, N.Y.) — The families of two of Iran’s hostages will mark the grim anniversaries this weekend of the initial and unjustified arrests of their loved ones by the Iranian regime. Emad Shargi, an Iranian American, was initially arrested by the regime on April 23, 2018. Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian Swede, was first arrested on April 24, 2016.

Weeks after his Senate confirmation, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that President Joe Biden’s foreign policy would be centered on the “protection of human rights.” In keeping with that commitment, the safe and immediate release of all foreign and dual nationals being held hostage must be a precondition to any agreements with the Iranian regime.

Shargi has been imprisoned on and off multiple times over the last four years for “espionage and military intelligence gathering,” according to the regime-affiliated Young Journalists’ Club (YJC). He was reportedly re-arrested on December 6, 2020. In a recent Washington Post documentary, Shargi’s wife and daughters describe the horrific conditions the regime has subjected Emad to, including receiving only two days of fresh air during a year of imprisonment. 

Djalali was arrested after traveling to Iran on an invitation to speak at two universities. He was originally sentenced to 18 months for “corruption on Earth” and later sentenced to death for spying for Israel. Djalali is reportedly experiencing severe health issues. His wife said in February 2019 that test results indicated he may have leukemia, but he was prevented from being seen by cancer and blood specialists. According to several human rights and academic groups, Djalali also suffers from high blood pressure, a low heart rate, gallstones, a hernia, malnutrition, gastritis, and depression, among other maladies. 

UANI’s resource American and Western Hostages profiles all the publicly disclosed American and other Western hostages currently being held unjustly by Iran, as well as two hostages that were executed or otherwise died while being held hostage. 

Failing to secure the release of all hostages was one of the major failings of the JCPOA and should not be repeated. In January 2022, Barry Rosen, a survivor of the Iran Hostage Crisis and Senior Advisor to United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), staged a five-day hunger strike in support of the hostages, prompting U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley to tell reporters “it is very hard for us to imagine getting back into the nuclear deal while four innocent Americans are being held hostage by Iran.” 

Rosen subsequently argued in the Washington Post that the U.S. and its allies should abandon their piecemeal approach to securing the release of the hostages. Rather, “Tehran should be confronted with a multilateral effort. Americans, British, French, Austrians, Canadians, Swedes and Germans — all of whom count their fellow citizens as hostages in Iran — should band together to bring pressure. Strength is in numbers.” 

To read UANI’s resource American and Western Hostages, please click here.

To read UANI’s profile on Emad Shargi, please click here.

To read UANI’s profile on Ahmadreza Djalali, please click here.

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