Exclusive: US says it is looking into case of American jailed in Iran

The Biden administration says it is looking into Iran's apparent recent detention of an Iranian American dual national who is the only U.S. citizen publicly reported to have been jailed by the Islamic republic since a rare U.S.-Iran prisoner swap in September 2023.

Responding to a VOA inquiry last week the State Department said in a statement that it was "aware of reports that a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen has been arrested in Iran."

The reports refer to Reza Valizadeh, a former journalist for VOA sister network Radio Farda who had left the Persian-language network in 2022. He flew to Tehran in February to visit his family after living in the West for 14 years, according to his last post on the X platform in August.

Iran views Radio Farda and other Western-based Persian media as hostile entities because they draw attention to public dissent and protests against the nation's authoritarian Islamist rulers.

"We are working with our Swiss partners who serve as the protecting power for the United States in Iran to gather more information about this case," a State Department spokesperson said.

"Iran routinely imprisons U.S. citizens and other countries' citizens unjustly for political purposes. This practice is cruel and contrary to international law," the spokesperson added.

An informed source inside Iran told VOA's Persian Service that Valizadeh was arrested in Iran in late September on charges of collaborating with overseas-based Persian media. The source requested anonymity due to Iran's repeated harassment of individuals who provide comments publicly to Western media.

The Iran-based human rights group Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) and the U.S.-based media rights group Committee to Protect Journalists reported in mid-October that Valizadeh had been held in Tehran's Evin prison without access to a lawyer since his arrest. The reports cited two sources: one close to Valizadeh's family, and one who previously worked with Valizadeh.

Iran's U.N. mission in New York acknowledged receiving a VOA request for comment about Valizadeh's case last week but provided no response.

Skylar Thompson, HRAI's Washington-based deputy director, said in a message to VOA that the State Department "must utilize all available diplomatic channels to investigate Valizadeh's detention and ensure his immediate, unhindered access to legal counsel."

In his last X post in August, Valizadeh wrote that he had returned to Iran in February after having only "half-completed" a negotiation with the intelligence arm of Iran's top military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He said he decided to return voluntarily, even without having received a prior written or verbal commitment that the IRGC would not impede his visit.

In Valizadeh's previous X post, published in February upon arrival in Iran, he said Iranian intelligence agents had summoned and pressured his family members to persuade him to return.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has tried to persuade Iranians living abroad that they have nothing to fear by returning.

"We must assure them that if they return to Iran, we will not file a case against them. We will not harass them, and we will not prevent them from leaving," Pezeshkian said in an August interview with state news agency ISNA.

Jason Brodsky, policy director of U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, told VOA that Valizadeh's arrest should be a warning to Iranians with dual nationalities that Tehran's assurances cannot be trusted.

"There have been cases over the years in which Iranians abroad will get authorization from one governmental entity in Iran to enter, and then a competing agency will scoop up this person and take him hostage," Brodsky said.

Valizadeh was slated to go on trial before Revolutionary Court judge Abolghassem Salavati, according to sources cited by HRAI and Iranian freelance journalist Nejat Bahrami, who first reported Valizadeh's arrest in a social media post on October 13. Salavati has been sanctioned by the U.S. government for harshly punishing Iranian citizens and dual nationals for exercising their freedoms of expression or assembly.

"It seems as though Valizadeh is wrongfully detained," said Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian political scientist who herself was detained in Iran from 2018 to 2020 on what Western nations said were bogus security charges.

In an email to VOA, Moore-Gilbert wrote that Valizadeh's journalism "would certainly make him a person of interest to the IRGC."

"The fact that he has been referred to the Revolutionary Court of Salavati is also telling, as this judge is favored by the IRGC for dealing with political cases including the wrongful detention of foreign and dual nationals," she wrote.

Granting a wrongful detention designation to a U.S. national means U.S. Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens is authorized to work with a coalition of government and private sector organizations to secure the detainee's freedom.

Designations are granted if a review by the secretary of state concludes that the U.S. national's case meets criteria defined in the Levinson Act of 2020.

Any of Valizadeh's family members residing abroad or legal representatives should "immediately apply" to the U.S. secretary of state for a wrongful detention designation, Moore-Gilbert said. Valizadeh's recent work as a journalist should make the process "relatively straightforward" in contrast to other cases, she added.

The State Department spokesperson who sent the statement to VOA said the agency "continuously monitors the circumstances surrounding the detentions of U.S. citizens overseas for indicators that the detentions may be wrongful."

The Biden administration secured the release of five Iranian Americans whom it deemed wrongfully detained in Iran in a September 2023 deal in which five Iranians in the U.S. also won reprieves from detention and prosecution.

That deal is the only U.S.-Iran prisoner exchange of Biden's term so far. It also involved the U.S. allowing $6 billion in Iranian funds frozen under U.S. sanctions in South Korean banks to be transferred to Qatar for Iran to use for humanitarian purchases. A U.S. Treasury Department spokesperson told U.S. media last month that the funds remain "immobilized" following Iran's backing of the October 2023 Hamas terror attack on Israel.

"Valizadeh's detention raises questions as to whether the Iranians are holding him hostage for an exchange involving the movement of those assets in Qatar or something even greater," Brodsky said.

"Every time we do a deal like that, it emboldens the Iranians to take more hostages," he added. "So we need a comprehensive strategy, working with our allies and partners, to employ common hostage-taking penalties against Iran involving sanctions and diplomatic isolation."

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA's Persian service.