Morad Tahbaz

Morad Tahbaz is an environmental activist who was arrested in February 2018 during the arrest of a group of environmental activists by the IRGC Intelligence. He is a board member and a founder of Mirath Persian Wildlife Institute. His temporary detention lasted hundreds of days. He was finally sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage.

IRGC's Vatan Emrouz newspaper announced his name as Morad Moshe Tahbaz and his religion as Jewish. The information about Mr. Tahbaz's name and religion might be unfounded. <symbol-timeline></symbol-timeline>

• <coverage-outsourcing id='20993'> Several environmental activists were arrested around this time, and transferred to Ward 2A of Evin prison. Kavous Seyyed Emami, Taher Ghadirian, Sam Rajabi, Houman Jokar, Morad Tahbaz, Amirhossein Khaleghi, Niloufar Bayani, Sepideh Kashani, Hassan Ragh, Aref Zare, Mohammad Zare, Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, Morteza Arianejad, Alireza Farhadzadeh and Mohammad Saleh Ahmadi are among those arrested in relation to this case, by the IRGC Department of Intelligence. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21572'> According to ISNA, the Tehran prosecutor, in addition to posing the charge of “espionage” through “collecting systematic data in the areas of missiles and defense,” has also accused them of “pursuing a three-pronged project in assisting the CIA and MUSAD in researching environmental data, infiltrating the Iranian Scientific Community, and gathering classified information from secret national sites including missile bases. It is claimed that the accused were ‘seeking to complete a joint mission along with the CIA and MUSAD in order to create various environmental crises in the country. Furthermore, ISNA has accused members of the Institute for Persian Heritage and Wildlife Preservation of ‘strategically placing cameras under the guise of observing environmental patterns, for the purpose of monitoring national missile activities, which would then be recorded and sent to foreign agents.” </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21099'> Four UN Human Rights experts have issued a statement calling for the immediate release and withdrawal of criminal charges against Iranian environmental activists. In this statement, while expressing concern over the targeting of such activists by security officials, they have called these arrests ‘inexcusable’, deeming suggestions of connection between environmental protection efforts and crimes such as ‘espionage’ and ‘acting against the state’ ’to be “hard to fathom.” Furthermore, they have called the “flimsy” accusations against Kavous Seyyed Emami to be part of a “foul, disturbing” game, thereby asking Iranian officials for an impartial and effective investigation into the death of Mr. Seyyed Emami. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21328'> The Center for Human Rights, in an interview with an informed source, reported that the detainees have not been charged yet or if they have, the charges have not been disclosed publicly, they were denied access to a lawyer and they had still not seen their families, six weeks after their arrest. The source has added that the families of the detainees, along with several university professors and colleagues of detainees, met with some of the parliamentarians, and spoke to the representatives about the installed cameras, the Cheetah project, and the areas in which they worked and how they worked. However, they have received no news from these representatives, as well as from the four-member committee that Hassan Rouhani had formed, following up on the death of Kavous Seyyed Emami and the situation of the detained environmental activists. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21329'> HRANA, quoting BBC, reported that the families of the detainees were told during their visit to Evin Prison that the detainees "are still banned from family visits and their interrogation period has been extended until the 25th of March." </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21403'> In an interview with the Center for Human Rights, an informed source announced that the arrest of detainees has been extended until the 25th of March. He added that except for Niloufar Bayani, none of the detainees had met with their families since their detention, and their lawyers were not allowed to meet with the client and enter the case. He also told the Center about Alireza Farhadzadeh: > Alireza's condition is worse than the rest of the detainees, since no news of him has been available since his arrest, and he has not even had a telephone call. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21561'> An informed source told the Center for Human Rights in Iran that the mother and father of Amirhossein Khaleghi and Houman Jokar and wife of Morad Tahbaz have met them in prison. The source said that the meeting had been in the presence of the interrogator for a few minutes and mentioned that physically, the detainees looked well. The source also told the Center: > There is no information about the activists arrested in the south of the country. Their families have no news of them, and this is disconcerting. Morteza Arianejad, Hassan Ragh, Aref Zare, Mohammad Zare, Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, Bandar Abbas, and Alireza Farhadzadeh, a wildlife documentary filmmaker, are some of the environmental activists in detention. The source also told the campaign that the intelligence agents had entered the house of Amirhossein Khaleghi without any notice. They searched the place and took a computer and camera off Amirhossein's landlord. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21749'> Tehran's prosecutor repeated the espionage charges and claimed that environmental activists were covers to get around the country's intelligence. He said "In one of the defendants' remarks, it is revealed that he was trained abroad and traveled to the country and carried out similar actions in the foreign sphere. One of the defendants received monthly salaries, had a secure computer, reported on a monthly basis and would go to the embassy related to the service in London or other countries, and had exchanged information." Jafari Dolatabadi also made a claim about Kaveh Madani, a former deputy of the environmental organization: > If people prefer to escape, this is due to the importance of preliminary investigations in the case, and if today we read on some sites that the deputy has left the country, it goes back to the investigation, because some defendants have realized that we are approaching them. Now, if someone has left the country, they will finally return. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='21782'> Nearly 800 environmental activists sent a letter to the president, asking him to urgently address the situation of detained environmental activists and pay attention to their rights as detainees. "It is astonishing that all the activities and efforts made by Iran's environmental community in the last few decades to raise public awareness and to tackle the water crisis, climate change, the destruction of biodiversity and other environmental problems that require contact with professors and foreign universities, sampling natural areas with equipment such as telephoto cameras, as well as research and executive activities in official projects approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Forestry and Rangeland Organization, or attracting funds for protective projects from the related institutions are now considered suspicious and criminal." They called on the president to create a safe environment for environmental activists, to defend the rights of the accused and to prevent the mentioning of unproved allegations in the media, and to announce the results of the four-member committee's investigation formed by the president's order to investigate the case. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='22131'> Leili Houshmand Afshar, Sam Rajabi’s mother, was able to visit him in Evin prison. She gave this news in an interview with the Center for Human Rights in Iran, adding that her son’s mental condition had improved since her first visit. Furthermore, she added that she’d been told by the authorities not to speak about the kind of charges against her son, not to talk about the availability of a lawyer, not to speak any foreign languages, and not to hug or kiss her son. She was informed that a lawyer would not have access to her son’s file until the start of court proceedings. Previously, Mahmoud Behzadi, Sam Rajabi’s lawyer, had informed the Center that he and other lawyers advocating on behalf of environmental activists have all issued their respective ‘Power of Attorney’ documentation as of February 4th. Nonetheless, those arrested are not even informed that they have legal representation. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='22097'> Mahmoud Sadeghi wrote on his Twitter account that during a meeting with his fellow MPs, the intelligence minister "explicitly, and documentally announced that they have not found any reason to deem the environmental activists to be spies." </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='22130'> Azar Sedaghati, an environmental activist, posted on her Instagram page about 40 local residents and two rangers in Bandar Lengeh in Hormozgan province. She said the houses of all these people were searched and the communications devices were all seized. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='22618'> Isa Kalantari, head of the Environmental Protection Agency said: > Based on the assessment of the four-member government's committee, environmental activists should be released. He emphasized that there is no evidence that they are spies. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='22747'> Mohammad Reza Tabesh, chairman of the environmental fraction of Parliament, said that according to experts from the Ministry of Intelligence, the environmental activists are not spies. He also talked about the condition of Kavous Seyyed Emami's wife: > We demanded the matter to be addressed but we have not yet received a response from the relevant authorities. Furthermore, Masoumeh Ebtekar, Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, said: > The case of environmental activists will close shortly and detainees will be released. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='22816'> Katayoun Rajabi, the sister of Sam Rajabi, in an open letter to Hassan Rouhani, complained about the continued arrest of environmental activists and the lack of accountability of the judiciary and security authorities. She urged the president to address this matter. In her letter, she cites the unclear nature of the organization that arrested her brother, bringing charges by the prosecutor and the state television without holding a trial, more than two months of interrogation without legal presentation, giving promises to families for regular meetings and failure to meet these promises, failure to allow regular phone calls, the manner of the magistrate behavior and threats to execute the prisoners in the event of further follow-up and lack of accountability on the part of the officials despite the Intelligence Minister's acknowledgment that the detainees are not spies. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='23115'> The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported citing a source close to the families of environmental activists arrested on the commencement of interrogations and pressure on them in the Revolutionary Guard clause 2 of the Evin Prison. The informed source told the Campaign that at the last meetings of families with their children, which had taken place last week, "Sam Nurse Rajabi was wounded, the teeth had been broken by Tahir Ghadirian, and the officer who told Niloufar to tell her mother that she had been sent a blindfold to her family. That he should cooperate with them. "Sam Rajabi's mother also confirmed in a conversation with Sam Rajabi on the nose, and added that she was" weak, lean and pale "at the last meeting. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='23407'> In a letter addressed to the heads of the three government branches, the family of the arrested environmental activists called for transparency in the status of the environmental activists in ward 2A of Evin prison. Pointing out that eight of the detainees were still deprived of having attorneys, they have said, "The President's Special Investigation Board, the Minister of Intelligence and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency have officially announced that the espionage charges that have been made to detain the environmental activists are unsubstantial, and have demanded their release. The spokesman for the judiciary has also announced the end of the investigation period. However, our loved ones are still in temporary custody." In another part of the letter, they called for a delegation of parliamentarians and government representatives to meet with the detainees to discuss their cases. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='25701'> According to IPA, five trial sessions were held for environmental activists in early 2019 on 30 Jan, February 2, 12, 13 and 18. In the next month, at least three further sessions were held. In some trial sessions, not all activists were present. Some sessions were held without the lawyers </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='23834'> The first session of the environmental activists’ trial was held under the chairmanship of Judge Salavati. In this session, half of the three-hundred-page indictment was read. According to the reports, Niloufar Bayani repeatedly protested to the judge that her confessions had been acquired under torture. She said: “If you were also threatened, like I was, to get an injection, you would have confessed.” Some attorneys were not invited to this session. Meanwhile, MP Mahmoud Sadeghi announced that the Supreme National Security Council also studied the case and did not consider the activities of these prisoners as “cases of espionage.” It was previously reported that Tehran’s prosecutor has changed the charge of some environmental activists from “espionage” to the heavier charge “corruption on earth,” after receiving a letter from the army. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='25709'> The trial will take place this week, the Judiciary spokesperson said </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='26427'> Speaking to Khabar Online, Isa Kalantari, head of Iran’s Environment Organization, said the arrest was illegal and added: “The intelligence minister has officially declared that these people have not committed any crimes but a parallel intelligence operation claims them to be criminals. I am duty-bound to declare the opinion of the Intelligence Ministry since the constitutions tasks this ministry with deciding who is a spy.” He also said that the Judiciary has barred his organization from intervening in this case </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='27064'> Gholamhossein Mir Esmaili, the spokesperson of Iran's Judiciary, announced the change of charges against environmental activists. According to the statement of this judicial official, the accusation of these people has been changed from "spreading corruption on earth" to "collaboration with foreign countries". </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='27427'> The Iran Human Rights Campaign reported that Niloufar Bayani and Morad Tahbaz were accused of "receiving illegal money" in addition to the charge of "espionage". Receiving a salary for working in the United Nations Environment Office in Geneva is cited as a basis for Nilofar Bayani's accusation. Mr. Tahbaz has also faced this accusation because of collecting financial aid for the Institute of "Persian Heritage Wildlife". </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='27510'> The third channel of Islamic Republic TV, broadcast a program called “Documentary of the usual suspects”. this program aired just for three minutes. According to network officials, there were technical issues for broadcasting. In the early minutes of the program, Kavous Seyed Emami and Morad Tahbaz were introduced as affiliates of foreign intelligence services </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='27577'> According to the BBC, environmental activists' verdicts issued by Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court presided over by Judge Salavati. Morad Tahbaz and Niloufar Bayani were individually sentenced to 6 years, each of Taher Ghadirian and Hooman Jokar sentenced to 8 years, and each of Sepideh Kashani and Amir Hossein Khaleghi sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment. Sam Rajabi and Abdolreza Kouhpayeh's verdicts were probably issued and will be announced soon, according to lawyer Mohammad Hossein Aghasi's interview with Iran International. In addition to Mrs. Bayani's prison sentence, she has been sentenced to pay cash equal to six years of pay at the United Nations. The charges will be cited and listed in the statistical section, after accessing the details </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='27613'> According to the reports, Sam Rajabi has been sentenced to six years and Abdolreza Kouhpayeh to four years of imprisonment. Legal provisions that condemn environmental activists are unknown </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='27947'> <reference source='https://ipa.united4iran.org/media/file_evidence/abo.pdf'> Pooyan Khoshhal, an imprisoned journalist who spent some time with Morad Tahbaz and Abdolreza Koohpaye in Section 2A of the Evin Prison, wrote memoirs of this time which were published by the “Khate Solh” magazine. The full text is below and also in the “confirming evidence” section of this page </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='38765'> While the verdicts of all the defendants in this case have been issued and five people have been transferred to the general population ward of Evin prison, Houman Jokar, Niloufar Bayani and Morad Tahbaz are still in the solitary cell of Ward 2-Alef of Evin prison. </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='28058'> <reference source='https://www.dw.com/fa-ir/%D8%A2%D8%AE%D8%B1%DB%8C%D9%86-%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%B1%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C-%DA%86%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B4%D9%86%D8%A8%D9%87-%DB%B2%DB%B7-%D8%A2%D8%B0%D8%B1-%DB%B1%DB%B3%DB%B9%DB%B8/a-51716397'> Was sent to the general population </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='29260'> <reference source='https://www.hra-news.org/2020/hranews/a-23877/?tg_rhash=22a41dd9689763'> The spokesman for the judiciary announced the final sentence for environmental activists. The Court of Appeal of Tehran has confirmed the verdicts of the defendants; For Mr. Tahbaz, the order to return "amounts received from the American government" has also been added. With the exception of Mr. Kouhpayeh, who was sentenced to prison for the charge of "assembly and collusion to act against national security", the rest were sentenced to prison for the charge of "espionage or cooperation with hostile countries". </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='29577'> <reference source='https://twitter.com/andersen_inger/status/1237255870628745216'> Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, tweeted about the release of one of eight environmental activists named Abdolreza Kouhpayeh and called for the release of other environmentalists </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='33245'> <reference source='https://united4iran.org/en/15prisoners'> United for Iran published the fact patterns and legal analyses of Morad Tahbaz's case, taking into consideration human rights and fair trial violations based on international treaties to which the IRI is a signatory. The Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) has been used as the lead document for this context. United for Iran has published similar fact patterns for 14 other political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, and has called on UN institutions to use these resources to file cases and follow up on their situations </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='33085'> <reference source='https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1316014506619801600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1316014506619801600%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3%2Ccontainerclick_0&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.radiozamaneh.com%2F544980'> US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, posted a tweet pointing out that five years have passed since the arrest of Siamak Namazi and demanded the release of Siamak Namazi, Bagher Namazi, and Murad Tahbaz, three political prisoners with dual citizenship in Iran, and announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran should "stop its immoral act". </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='38550'> <reference source='https://t.me/hranews/65903'> Morad Tahbaz went on leave at the same time as the release of Nazanin Zaghari and Anousheh Ashouri. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='38549'> <reference source='https://t.me/emtedadnet/64837'> He returned to prison at the end of his furlough. Emtedad reported that it was not a "real" furlough because Morad Tahbaz was accompanied by at least 10 security agents all the time. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='38751'> <reference source=''> According to Atlas researchers, Morad Tahbaz went on a hunger strike to protest being accompanied by at least 10 agents during his leave. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='38753'> <reference source='https://www.kampain.info/archive/63809.htm'> He ended his hunger strike. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='38898'> <reference source='https://twitter.com/IranIntl/status/1514185218957189123?s=20&t=mkjDkmoSIeaqU-S_RDXw6g'> Roxana Tahbaz, daughter of Morad Tahbaz started her sit-in in front of the UK Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the demand of "returning father home". </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='39414'> <reference source='https://twitter.com/guardiannews/status/1525806716943835137?s=20&t=x8v1hpaJMSXl8Emb8JVOiw'> Roxan Tahbaz, the daughter of Morad Tahbaz, said in an interview with the British newspaper Guardian that the British government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of this country have "forgotten" their duty to make serious efforts to free her father. According to Roxan Tahbaz, while MP Tulip Sediq believed the only way to put pressure on the British government for the release of Nazanin Zaghari to be a public and direct campaign, Felicity Buchan, a conservative member of the House of Commons, has suggested following up Morad Tahbaz's situation "in silence". </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='40907'> <reference source='https://cutt.ly/HZg3KQG'> According to ILNA, Morad Tahbaz went on leave after posting bail and wearing an electronic ankle bracelet. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='40898'> <reference source='https://ir.voanews.com/a/us-voa-emad-sharqi-wife-bahareh-release-hostage-mural/6667019.html'> According to Voice of America, a mural with pictures of 18 American citizens who are imprisoned or taken hostage outside this country was unveiled in Washington. In this mural, the faces of five American citizens named Siamak Namazi, Bagher Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, Emad Sharghi, and Shahab Dalili, who are imprisoned in Iran, can also be seen. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='46208'> <reference source='https://www.bbc.com/persian/blog-viewpoints-64386186'> On the fifth anniversary of her arrest and a number of other environmental activists, Sepideh Kashani published a letter revealing the details of the torture and pressure of the IRGC intelligence on her, her husband, and other imprisoned environmental activists. In this letter, published by BBC Persian, Ms. Kashani mentions the threats to execute her husband, Houman Jokar, the video of the funeral of Kavous Seyyed Emami being played for her by her interrogators, her interrogations in the "dark" and "bloody" room, and the interrogators' control over the judges who issued the rulings against the environmental activists. At the beginning of the letter, she called the accusation of espionage "a made-up scenario" and wrote: > I am telling you that I was also under pressure, terrible torture, and interrogations to give false confessions. In a part of this letter, Sepideh Kashani mentioned the threats of her interrogators and disclosed that the interrogators have repeatedly threatened to execute her husband, Houman Jokar. Ms. Kashani wrote: > The interrogations were long and accompanied by screaming and obscenities, insults, lies, threats, slanders, and inquisitions. The interrogator insisted that I was a secret Jewish-Bahai. I was interrogated for hours while standing. I was not even allowed to lean my head against the wall. Describing the place of his interrogations, she wrote: > I was interrogated in a dark room. In the room where there was blood on the door and the wall. I could hear the scary voice of the interrogator from the speaker. Sepideh Kashani also mentions the long time of enduring solitary confinement: > We were in solitary confinement for two years. We spent a year with the horror of the charges of spreading corruption on earth and fear of execution. She mentions parts of her conversation with her interrogator, and she reveals new aspects of the control of the security institutions over the judicial system of the Islamic Republic: > I told the interrogator that after all there is a court, there is a judge, and our innocence will be proven; but he said that he will punch the judge in the mouth if he issues a verdict other than what he wants and said "who do you think is the judge? He works for us," and he was. He issued the verdict that the interrogator asked for. There was no defense. A mock trial and a mock indictment. Without real evidence." BBC Farsi has also published a part of Sepideh Kashani's defense in the court, in which Ms. Kashani once again addressed the pressures on her family and wrote: For several months, I was kept in the dark about everyone's fate, and this ignorance was very painful. The interrogator only gave bad and false news, that my father had a stroke and is in the hospital, and my sister, who is suffering from MS, had a severe attack and cannot walk and is in a wheelchair and does not even want to mention my name. Ms. Kashani says in her defense: > About a quarter of the entire indictment is redundancies. Parts of it was the translation of the brochures of wildlife protection equipment and tools, which have been repeated in almost all the charges, for defendants from rows one to eight. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='49740'> <reference source='https://twitter.com/a_motalebzadeh/status/1639942722600435714'> Aliyeh Motalebzadeh, a former political prisoner, posted a tweet on her user page and wrote that Sepideh Kashani, Niloufar Bayani, Houman Jokar, Sam Rajabi, Taher Ghadirian, and Amir Hossein Khaleghi were on leave for a week. Morad Tahbaz, a co-defendant of these political prisoners, was denied leave. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='50600'> <reference source='https://www.iranintl.com/202304228341'> Vedant Patel, Deputy Spokesman of the US State Department, referring to five years since the arrest of Emad Sharghi, called the imprisonment of foreign citizens a cruel political tactic and said that the Islamic Republic should immediately release Mr. Sharghi, Morad Tahbaz, and Siamak Namazi, three American citizens. According to Iran International, Vedant Patel said in his press conference: > Iran's unfair use of prison and abuse of American citizens as political leverage is a cruel, inhuman act and against international laws. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='50926'> <reference source='https://www.radiofarda.com/a/american-prisoner-s-families-appeal-to-biden-to-bring-them-home/32394747.html'> The families of the American-Iranian dual citizens imprisoned in Iran, Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi, and Morad Tahbaz, held a rally in front of the White House and asked the Joe Biden administration to return them to their families in America by paying any political costs for the release of these citizens. According to Radio Farda, a spokesperson for the US State Department said at the same time as the gathering that the Biden administration is working "tirelessly" on the fate of these people and that the negotiations in this regard are not made public because of the "sensitivity" and "extreme importance" of the issue. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='53688'> <reference source='https://ir.voanews.com/a/voa-exclusive-white-house-jake-sullivan-confirmed-indirect-negotiations-iran-americans-release/7173530.html'> White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told VOA Persian that the Joe Biden administration has "indirect talks" with the Islamic Republic to free Americans detained in Iran. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='53685'> <reference source='https://www.radiofarda.com/a/we-will-not-discuss-the-details-of-any-efforts-to-secure-the-release-of-u-s-citizens/32513800.html'> In response to Radio Farda, one of the spokespersons of the US Se stated that four American citizens (three of whom are named Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi, and Morad Tahbaz) were "unjustly" detained by the Islamic Republic and announced that even "The number of detained American citizens" in Iran is not published in order not to jeopardize the process of their release. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='53691'> <reference source='https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/us/politics/iran-us-prisoner-swap.html'> The New York Times quoted American sources and wrote that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has transferred five Iranian Americans from prison to house arrest after two years of negotiations. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='53699'> <reference source='https://ir.voanews.com/a/eu-welcomed-change-in-status-iranian-american-prisoners/7221426.html'> Peter Stano, the spokesperson for the foreign policy of the European Union, told VOA Farsi about the change in the status of Iranian-American prisoners from prison to house arrest: > We welcome the release of four American prisoners who are now under house arrest. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='53705'> <reference source='https://www.reuters.com/world/iran-us-verge-prisoner-swap-under-qatar-mediated-deal-2023-09-10/'> Citing the statements of several Iranian diplomats and other sources familiar with the negotiations between Tehran and Washington, the Reuters news agency announced the details of the current agreement to release six billion dollars of Iran's blocked assets and the release of a number of prisoners from both sides. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='53707'> <reference source='http://tinyurl.com/ye23zfjd'> In an interview with the Associated Press, Ali Karimi Magham, the spokesman of Iran's delegation to the United Nations, confirmed the names of five Iranian prisoners whom the Islamic Republic hopes to release as part of a prisoner exchange with the United States. Mizan, the Judiciary News Agency named these prisoners as follows: Mehrdad Moein Ansari, Kambiz Attar Kashani, Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani, Amin Hassanzadeh, and Kaveh Afrasiabi. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>
• <coverage-outsourcing id='53710'> <reference source='https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/09/18/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-the-return-of-american-detainees-from-iran/#:~:text=I%20am%20grateful%20to%20our,%2C%20Switzerland%2C%20and%20South%20Korea.'> The plane carrying five American prisoners from Iran, including Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi, and Morad Tahbaz, landed at the Doha Qatar airport. Thus the prisoner exchange agreement between Iran and the United States, which coincided with the transfer of the blocked money of the Islamic Republic from South Korea to Qatar, was finalized. </reference> </coverage-outsourcing>