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Al-Monitor – Baquer Namazi, a US citizen held in Iran for more than six years, is again in urgent need of surgery to clear life-threatening blockages in an artery to his brain, his family said Tuesday.
Multiple neurologists have assessed that the 85-year-old needs surgery within weeks to address blockages in his left internal carotid artery. Namazi, who Iranian authorities have barred from leaving he country, underwent a similar procedure to avoid a stroke in October 2021 after Tehran refused to allow him to seek medical care abroad.
The Namazi family urged Iran to grant Baquer’s son Siamak Namazi furlough so that he can be with him during his surgery and recovery process. The younger Namazi is currently in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, where he is the longest-held American prisoner in Iran.
The Namazis are among four dual Iranian-American citizens whose release the Biden administration has been trying to secure as part of indirect negotiations with Iran.
Baquer, a former UNICEF official, was arrested in February 2016 by members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who lured him to Iran on the premise he could visit his son Siamak, a businessman who was detained several months before.
Both men were convicted in October 2016 of collaborating with the United States and sentenced to 10 years in prison in a trial that human rights groups described as a sham. After two years in Evin Prison, the senior Namazi was placed on a highly restrictive medical furlough and later had his sentence commuted.
Baquer Namazi’s health has severely deteriorated while in Iranian custody. During his detention, he was hospitalized more than a dozen times, lost multiple teeth and had two heart surgeries, the family said. He’s also developed stress-induced adult-onset epilepsy and severe depression.
But despite his extremely poor health, Namazi remains under a travel ban.
“Iranian authorities have known about Baquer’s extremely precarious health since the moment they arrested him,” said Jared Genser, the Namazi family’s pro bono lawyer in Washington. “Their blatant disregard over whether an innocent, frail, and elderly man lives or dies is a calculated affront to their obligations under international law,” Genser said in a statement.
The Namazi family’s plea comes as efforts to revive the landmark nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action have again stalled following nearly a year and a half of talks.
In recent weeks, negotiators sounded upbeat that a deal could be quickly reached. But on Thursday, Washington described Tehran’s latest response to a draft text as “not constructive.” The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday that he was now “less confident” in the prospects of a revived agreement.
The Biden administration says it’s working to free the Americans through indirect negotiations with Iran that are separate from those aimed at restoring the JCPOA. But the families have expressed concerns that the nuclear deal and their loved ones’ fates are implicitly linked.
In a June essay that he penned from prison, Siamak Namazi accused the administration of ignoring the detainees’ plights and “making our freedom dependent on how the unpredictable nuclear discussions end.”
In addition to the Namazis, Iran is also holding businessman Emad Shargi on vague spying charges that rights groups say are baseless. In July, Iranian authorities released Morad Tahbaz, an environmentalist who also holds British citizenship, on temporary furlough with an ankle bracelet.
In a statement Tuesday, Baquer’s other son Babak Namazi called on Iran “to show the smallest amount of humanity” by granting Siamak furlough. He also urged the United States to “drastically increase its efforts to obtain my family’s freedom before it’s too late.”
“Time is not on our side,” Babak said.
