War with Iran raises concerns about the safety of Americans detained in the country

Lawyers for at least four Americans who were detained in Iran before the US-Israeli strikes began are increasingly concerned about their safety, as heavy bombing continues throughout the country.

Two of those Americans were publicly named: 49-year-old journalist Abdolreza “Reza” Valizadeh, the US State Department officially designated him as. “unjustly detained” by Iran in May 2025, and 61-year-old Kamran Hekmati, who was arrested in July 2025 while visiting family in Iran.

Both were held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison before the war began. No information has been confirmed about their whereabouts or condition since then.

The nonprofit groups said they are tracking at least two other Americans believed to be detained in Iran, whose identities could not be confirmed to CBS News.

“Evin prison, we know, has been attacked by the Israeli government in the past. During the 12-day war. [between Israel and Iran in June 2025]a bomb was actually detonated. So we have this risk of Evin Prison being hit in some kind of military strike,” said Kieran Ramsey, a retired FBI assistant director and senior investigator at the Global Reach organization, which works to bring back Americans wrongfully held abroad.

“Then we’re at risk of retaliation by other inmates and prison guards, because Kamran is American. And he’s Jewish. So our concern continues to grow as each day goes by,” Ramsey told CBS News.

“The IDF, the Israel Defense Force, has placed a notice next door to Evin Prison that residents must leave to avoid airstrikes. So, it’s clear that prisoners inside Evin don’t have the same comfort,” Ryan Fayhee, an attorney representing Valizadeh and a partner at the law firm Akin Gump, told CBS News. “It’s really dark for us. We can’t contact Reza or his family in Tehran. So it must be fair, really, he must be feeling helpless right now.”

CBS News spoke with Joe Bennett, the son of British inmates Lindsay and Craig Foreman, who were also held at Evin prison. Bennett is able to have daily phone calls with his mother, who earlier this week reported that there were fireworks near the prison and windows were blown out. As of Friday, he remained in jail and could call every day.

Who are Reza Valizadeh and Kamran Hekmati?

Valizadeh became a US citizen in 2022 after working for the US government-sponsored broadcaster Radio Farda, the Persian branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

He believes he has received assurances that it is safe for him to return to Iran, where most of his family lives, but days after arriving in Tehran in 2024 for a visit, he was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and taken to Evin prison.

He spent weeks under intense interrogation and solitary confinement, and Iranian officials did not publicly acknowledge his arrest for nearly two months. In December 2024, Valizadeh was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being charged with “cooperating with a hostile government,” according to a request filed in January by his lawyer with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Since then, his family says Valizadeh, who has asthma, has been having trouble coughing and being denied medication.

“As someone who has represented Americans who have been wrongfully imprisoned in the past, this is a very unusual situation where our ability to represent Reza has apparently been blocked by military strikes,” Fayhee told CBS News. “It’s hard to imagine what a lawyer could do for Reza, other than asking the US and the Israelis to increase surveillance in the area around Evin Prison. And Reza is not the only American citizen within the walls of Evin.”

Hekmati, who lives on Long Island and owns a jewelry business in New York City, immigrated to the US from Iran after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, his lawyers for the nonprofit Global Reach, which works to secure the release of Americans wrongfully detained abroad, said.

He has traveled to Iran several times due to an urgent family matter, but was prevented from leaving in May last year and was arrested in July. He was then charged under a law that prohibits Iranian citizens from visiting Israel within 10 years of entering Iran, his lawyers said, although they said he had not been to Israel for 13 years. He was later convicted of an additional charge of meeting with agents of the Israeli Mossad intelligence agency.

Iran’s history of arbitrary detention

The day before the US and Israel launched their strikes on Iran, Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Iran as a State Sponsor of Wrongful Imprisonment. The position was created last fall, after President Trump issued an Executive Order to Protect Americans from Wrongful Detention in Foreign Countries.

“When the Iranian regime took power 47 years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini consolidated his power by authorizing the kidnapping of US embassy staff,” Rubio said in a statement at the time. “For decades, Iran has continued to brutally imprison innocent Americans, as well as foreign nationals, to use as political leverage against other states. This despicable practice must end.”

Valideza’s lawyer says US special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner entered the latest talks with Iran, before the war, with Valideza’s name on the list.

“The military strikes disrupted what I hoped was a conversation about Reza. I will say this: If the Iranians want an off-ramp … that will free American citizens who are being held, including Reza, including Kamran Hekmati,” Fayhee said.

Ramsay, a retired FBI assistant director, also suggested that American prisoners could present a possible political solution to the conflict.

“We’re hearing a lot of different reasons why this war started and what the end goals are. Things like no more nuclear development, no more ballistic missiles, the use of proxies. We want a fourth thing added to that, and that’s Iran ceasing and abandoning all hostage negotiations,” Ramsay told CBS News.

Ramsay said there may be other ways to repatriate prisoners.

“I have 30-plus years of federal government behind me, and you would have asked me … maybe last year or the year before, would things like a bailout be possible this time? And I would tell you no. But looking at what this administration is doing in Venezuela and Maduro, I would say everything is on the table.”

A State Department spokesperson told CBS News on Friday that it was aware of reports of Americans being detained in Iran prior to February 27, and that it wanted to provide diplomatic assistance. The spokesman said Iran should immediately release all Americans detained in the country.

“President Trump has made it clear that he wants every wrongfully imprisoned American to be returned home safe and sound, and that there will be dire consequences for governments that treat Americans as political agents,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement sent to CBS News on Friday.