[ad_1]
When Abdolreza “Reza” Valizadeh returned to Iran within the spring of 2024, it was the primary time he had set foot in his dwelling nation in 15 years. The veteran journalist, who had spent greater than a decade in exile, traveled to Iran to see and look after his getting old mother and father.
Six months later, he was in solitary confinement in Tehran’s infamous Evin Jail.
Valizadeh, a 49-year-old twin U.S.-Iranian citizen and longtime critic of Iran’s safety institution, was arrested on Sept. 22, 2024, by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). His detention, detailed in a petition filed Tuesday by his legal professional with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, comes amid Iran’s sweeping crackdown on protests throughout the nation, and as tensions with Washington simmer.
The State Division formally designated Valizadeh as “wrongfully detained” in Might 2025, putting his case beneath the authority of the U.S. authorities’s hostage affairs workplace. Valizadeh is certainly one of no less than 4 Iranian-Individuals at present held in Iran, together with 70-year-old Kamran Hekmati and no less than one different septuagenarian, a lady, sources conversant in the matter confirmed to CBS Information.
“In lodging this petition to the UN, alongside pulling each lever of energy obtainable to us in D.C., we’re dedicated to bringing consideration to Reza’s case, not solely to safe his launch, however to ship an unequivocal message that the concentrating on of U.S. residents overseas won’t be tolerated,” Ryan Fayhee, counsel to Valizadeh and a accomplice on the legislation agency Akin Gump, stated in an announcement.
“Every single day that Reza stays behind bars, the Iranian regime is emboldened to focus on Individuals who dare to advocate for fact, justice, and a greater future for the Iranian individuals,” Fayhee stated.
Courtesy of Valizadeh Household 
Valizadeh’s case continues to unfold in opposition to a unstable backdrop inside Iran, the place hundreds of protesters are believed to have been killed, and lots of hundreds extra arrested, as authorities have cracked down on current demonstrations over financial hardship and political repression. A near-total web and communications blackout has been in place for greater than two weeks.
U.S. officers have condemned Tehran’s therapy of protesters, warning of additional financial strain — and attainable army strikes — whereas leaving open the potential of talks. Iranian leaders have accused Washington of interference, elevating considerations amongst rights advocates that Individuals held in Iran might be used as leverage as tensions sharpen.
President Trump stated final week he held off on putting Iran after being assured by the regime that the executions of a whole lot of protesters had been “canceled,” however in a current interview known as for “new management” in Iran. The usS. Abraham Lincoln plane provider strike group has begun to maneuver west from the Indo-Pacific in direction of the Center East, CBS Information has confirmed, and is predicted to reach within the coming days.
“The Trump administration is carefully monitoring Mr. Valizadeh’s case. President Trump has been clear that he needs each wrongfully detained American returned dwelling,” a senior administration official instructed CBS Information.
The State Division and a spokesperson for the Everlasting Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
“These Individuals should come dwelling”
Valizadeh turned a U.S. citizen in 2022 via his work for U.S.-funded broadcaster Radio Farda, the Persian department of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
In keeping with messages relayed to his legal professional by his household, Valizadeh believed he had been given assurances by Iranian authorities that it was secure to return to Tehran, the place most of his household resides. His brother has stated he now believes these ensures had been a part of a entice, probably involving a former colleague who had ties to the IRGC.
Reporting by Persian-language media later cited sources who stated Iranian intelligence had hoped to strain Valizadeh into cooperating in opposition to his former employer, Radio Farda, for which he reported on corruption, protests and the affect of the IRGC. He refused.
Days later, IRGC brokers detained him on a Tehran avenue, confiscated his belongings, together with his U.S. passport, and took him to Evin Jail, the place he spent weeks in isolation and beneath intense interrogation. Iranian officers didn’t publicly acknowledge his arrest for practically two months.
Valizadeh was ultimately charged with “collaborating with a hostile authorities,” a imprecise nationwide safety offense that Iranian authorities routinely use in opposition to journalists and activists.
In December 2024, after what the petition to the U.N. describes as a sham trial lasting lower than an hour, and by which the decide acted as each prosecutor and adjudicator, Valizadeh was sentenced to 10 years in jail. His enchantment to the regime was rejected in January 2025.
Since then, his household says Valizadeh’s well being has steadily deteriorated. He suffers from bronchial asthma, which has been worsened by overcrowded cells, poor air high quality and publicity to smoke and particles — circumstances that intensified after Israeli airstrikes struck elements of Evin Jail in June 2025 through the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran. He has endured frequent coughing matches and has been denied fundamental drugs, dental care and therapy for gastrointestinal issues.
After the June strikes, Valizadeh was amongst prisoners who had been shackled and transferred to a different facility with out their belongings or medication, in accordance with the U.N. submitting, earlier than being returned to Evin Jail, the place his brother says he now shares a small cell with as much as 18 different inmates amid extreme shortages of meals, water, sanitation and medical care.
Attorneys for different Americans who had been wrongfully detained have petitioned the U.N. for assist in the current previous. They included Baquer Namazi, who was permitted to go away Iran for life-saving surgical procedure within the UAE in 2022, and Ryan Corbett, who was imprisoned by the Taliban in Afghanistan and launched in a prisoners swap in January 2025.
“Household is on the coronary heart of the Iranian tradition. For this reason so many Iranian Individuals journey again to Iran — to go to aged mother and father and join with prolonged household. Sadly, this respect for household can be what offers the regime a gradual inflow of twin nationals to feast on,” Neda Sharghi, the sister of former wrongful detainee Emad Shargi and an advocate for American hostages and their households, instructed CBS Information. (The siblings use barely totally different spellings of their final identify.)
“President Trump has witnessed the brutality of the Iranian regime. He additionally is aware of that we’ve harmless Individuals, like not too long ago detained Reza Valizadeh and Kamran Hekmati, amongst others, ensnared within the regime’s hostage-taking tentacles. These Individuals should come dwelling and President Trump and his crew have proven us that, no less than on the subject of American hostages and wrongful detainees, they are going to do no matter they should attain their freedom,” Sharghi stated.
With assist from Sharghi and Valizadeh’s household, Fayhee has acquired since September three pre-recorded voice messages from Valizadeh describing the circumstances of his detention. The final got here on Dec. 20.
Neither Valizadeh nor his household have been involved since Iran’s crackdown and nationwide web blackout started.
[ad_2]
