Siamak Namazi, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was arbitrarily arrested whereas visiting his native nation of Iran for a memorial service in 2015.
Subsequently sentenced to 10 years in jail for “collaborating with a international authorities,” unclear fees he denied, Namazi ended up being the longest-held Iranian-American prisoner till his launch together with 4 different People final yr in a controversial prisoner trade.
In a uncommon interview with RFE/RL’s Radio Farda forward of the anniversary of his September 18, 2023, launch, Namazi described the ill-treatment and interrogations he endured at Tehran’s Evin jail throughout his eight years of incarceration and his combined emotions upon being freed after being held “hostage” by Iran.
“I used to be in disbelief. I used to be each very joyful to be launched and deeply troubled that I used to be being traded like a slave,” Namazi mentioned. “I think about myself a baby of Iran and an adopted baby of the USA. I like each nations and tried to be an excellent citizen to each.”
Unimaginable But Unhappy
Namazi mentioned that whereas the sensation of being freed “was unbelievable,” he was additionally stepping right into a world that “not felt acquainted.”
“There was additionally a deep disappointment that it ended this manner,” he mentioned of a course of wherein he felt he was denied justice by a system attempting to revenue from his imprisonment.
“I served eight out of a 10-year sentence earlier than being exchanged. I misplaced Iran within the course of. Eight years of jail, crammed with harsh remedies,” Namazi recalled, describing his incarceration in probably the most notoriously harsh wards of Evin jail.
“It wasn’t regular. I spent 27 months in ward ‘2A,’ the place those that had been detained and interrogated [know what it’s like]. I used to be interrogated for greater than two years.”
He initially struggled to persuade his guards and a few of his fellow inmates that he was a “actual” Iranian and that his remedy was unjust.
About six weeks previous to being flown out of Iran, Namazi was launched from Evin jail and brought to a extremely secured lodge in central Tehran.
Beneath fixed watch by members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Namazi and the 4 different U.S. residents who can be a part of a prisoner swap awaited their destiny underneath what he described as ridiculous circumstances.
“A few of their actions, you don’t know whether or not to chuckle or cry,” he mentioned of his IRGC guards.
The guards wouldn’t inform the prisoners the place they had been, and made it clear that “if anybody came upon the place we had been, they’d transfer us,” Namazi mentioned.
Iran’s judiciary had ordered that the prisoners be fitted with ankle screens and allowed to maneuver inside a 1-kilometer radius, however the IRGC was cautious that hackers would be capable to decide their location.
And whereas the IRGC wished no consideration paid to the prisoners, after they had been finally allowed to maneuver round, they had been adopted intently by IRGC members whose distinctive presence drew public consideration, Namazi says.
Controversial Change
Namazi and the 4 different People — Morad Tahbaz, an environmental activist detained in 2018; Emad Shargi, arrested whereas visiting Iran in 2018, and two others not publicly named — had been in the end freed in trade for the discharge of round $6 billion in frozen Iranian property.
The funds had been transferred to Qatar the place they had been to be intently supervised and launched solely provided that they be used for humanitarian functions.
After Hamas — a U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist group with ties to Iran — carried out a lethal assault on Israel on October 7, the deal got here underneath heavy criticism that it was aiding Iran’s regional ambitions. Shortly afterward, the USA and Qatar agreed to disclaim Iran entry to the $6 billion.
Beneath the deal that led to the discharge of the 5 People, clemency was additionally granted to 5 Iranians or Iranian-People who had been charged or convicted in the USA of violating sanctions towards Iran. Some with U.S. citizenship had been allowed the potential of remaining in the USA.
“From the attitude of the Islamic republic, we had been like $6 billion strolling on two legs,” Namazi mentioned. “That is why there was such weird safety over us. It is type of humorous; there’s at all times some comedy and absurdity of their system. On one hand, they play these spy video games, and on the opposite, we needed to eat within the lodge foyer. The place else might we go?”
After being denied the correct to depart the lodge for weeks, Nazami was finally allowed two nights every week to go to Saei Park, which abuts Tehran’s Valiasr Avenue, the scene of unprecedented antiestablishment protests that had erupted in Iran over the demise of Mahsa Amini in September 2022.
On the anniversary of Amini’s September 16 demise in police custody for allegedly improperly carrying her hijab, Namazi noticed bizarre Iranians singing protest songs and received to see the reactions of his IRGC guards.
“We had a guard who was twice my measurement, a real large,” Namazi recalled. “He mentioned: ‘Siamak, can folks in your nation protest and never get advised off?'”
Namazi was incredulous at the concept he was not thought-about to be an Iranian by his captors.
“I mentioned, let’s begin from right here; what do you imply by ‘your nation’? You were not even born once I grew up on this park,” Namazi mentioned he advised the guard. “I actually grew up in Saei Park. I’ve childhood reminiscences of each inch of this park since earlier than you even existed. I used to be born in Apadana Hospital. What do you imply?”
Namazi mentioned he demanded that the guard declare that “this place belongs to Siamak” or he would start shouting. “It’s good to perceive that you’re promoting out a baby of Iran,” he advised the guard, who declared his innocence.
“You are liable for safety, for transport. You’ve a task on this ugly historic act,” Namazi responded.
Whereas on a visit to Iran to see his imprisoned son in 2016, Siamak’s father, Baquer, was additionally arbitrarily detained, sentenced, and imprisoned for allegedly cooperating with U.S. intelligence companies to spy on Iran. Baquer, on the age of 85, was launched in October 2022 for medical remedy because the antiestablishment protests had been spreading throughout Iran.
‘Us And Them’
The youthful Namazi, who simply turned 53, says that he had been accustomed to being seen as an outsider whereas dwelling in Africa in his youth along with his father, a former provincial governor in Iran previous to the 1979 Islamic Revolution and a consultant for UNICEF who labored in Kenya, Somalia, and Egypt.
“This philosophy of ‘us and them’ will get so thick that it lets you deliver calamity upon one other human being,” Namazi mentioned. “To do this stuff to a different human, you need to strip them of their humanity. They don’t see him as a human. And within the Islamic republic, what occurs is that now we have these circles of ‘us and them.’ The interrogators definitely noticed us as ‘them.'”
It didn’t matter if “you had been Iranian or not,” Namazi mentioned, including that his interrogator “knew that at the very least 99 % of what he was saying was fully fabricated.”
Since his launch, Namazi has strongly advocated for the discharge of different prisoners, together with the Swedish-Iranian doctor Ahmadreza Djalali, held by the Iranian authorities. His yr out of jail has left Namazi with a message for Tehran, which he mentioned had made the “promoting” of its personal folks, like himself, “routine.”
“Do not commerce them. Do not barter them,” Namazi mentioned of Iranians with international citizenship who stay imprisoned underneath false pretexts in Iran.
“Launch them utilizing the legal guidelines of the Islamic republic, then we are able to sit down and speak, and for my part, this can be a very affordable start line.”