Former Iranian prisoners fear that Americans held in Iranian prisons are in grave danger
Former Iranian prisoner Siamak Namazi says he is concerned about the number of Americans who are known to be locked up inside Iranian prisons as America’s war continues in Iran.
“They’re an easy punching bag to hold right now in the hands of that corrupt government,” he said during an interview on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
“I think this is a dangerous time,” said Namazi. He added, “For someone who has been kidnapped or illegally detained a foreign citizen, their greatest fear is to be forgotten, and this is a very dangerous time for them, with everything that is happening in the mind of Washington.”
Namazi was imprisoned in Iran’s notorious Evin prison in 2015 after nearly eight years in prison, the longest-serving American prisoner to be released from Iran. The State Department ruled that he was wrongfully detained.
Emad Shargi, who was imprisoned in Iran for five years, recalled being in Evin prison in October 2022, as massive anti-government protests swept the country. Mahsa Amini22, was arrested for allegedly wearing hijab incorrectly and died in police custody. Authorities say he suffered a heart attack, but his family said police beat him to death.
Shargi said it is an “uncomfortable situation” inside the prison when there is unrest outside.
“Whenever there’s a crisis happening in Iran, Evin’s walls are like an amplifier,” Shargi said. “So, when there is noise outside the community, there are big waves inside.” He recalled the fire that was burning inside the prison, and the influx of new prisoners related to the protests.
Shargi and Namazi were in the middle five US citizens who were released in 2023 on a large, complex deal between Iran and the Biden administration that included the transfer of $6 billion in unfrozen Iranian oil assets and the release of five Iranians facing charges in the US
At the time, a senior administration official said the deal “does not change our relationship with Iran in any way. Iran is an enemy and sponsor of a terrorist state.”
Shargi said he is “confident” if President Trump and his administration know “there are Americans sitting in Evin prison,” they will “put that on the list” during the ongoing war.
“I think it’s important for him to hear that there are innocent Americans who have been caught just like us — as political actors,” Shargi said.
Namazi agreed, saying that he could not “think if President Trump knew their names and knew these cases, they would not be important.”
“I personally think there will be a time soon because all wars end with some kind of negotiation,” said Namazi. “So, I’m going to urge President Trump to make sure that part of those negotiations that are coming up bring our people home.”
They are at least four Americans he is currently imprisoned in Iran. Two of them – Reza Valizadeh and Kamran Hekmati – have been designated by the US government as “wrongfully imprisoned.” Both are believed to be held in Evin prison.
Namazi and Shargi spoke to a team with Shargi’s sister, Neda Sharghi, US negotiator Roger Carstens and Margaret Brennan on Thursday, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said “argest strike package yet“He was coming to Iran.
“Our American hostages, whether they’re from Iran or Venezuela, are always hostages to other big, broader political problems,” said Neda Sharghi. He said the American people “need to convince our government to separate them from what is happening and find a creative solution, like we did to get Emad and Siamak home.”
Carstens, who served as the U.S. special envoy on hostage issues for both Trump and Biden’s first administrations, told Brennan that he did not know whether the detained Americans had been brought up during talks with Iran led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
He said that when he discussed bringing Shargi and Namazi home, “we understood very well the connection between the nuclear talks and those prisoner talks, because if the nuclear talks fail suddenly in a terrible way, the prisoner talks can be postponed as well.”
Carstens said the US has tried to keep the relationship between the detainees and the nuclear talks separate, “so that there is a dotted line between the two issues, but not to connect them too much.”
“We’ve been working a lot on how those problems fit together, and we wanted the flexibility to separate them if we wanted to,” Carstens said.
He admitted that in the government, the nuclear issue and the detainees are “very closely related.” But Carstens said that may not be the case for the Americans: “If Witkoff and Kushner were trying to define the end of the nuclear issue, would they get it together? Actually, it might not be that close, depending on where they feel about the Iranians.”
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to correct two misattributed quotes by Shargi and Namazi.
