The Biden administration says it is looking into what appears to be Iran’s recent detention of a dual Iranian-American citizen, the only US citizen publicly reported to have been imprisoned by the Islamic Republic since a rare prisoner exchange between the US and Iran in September 2023.
In response to an inquiry by Voice of America last week, the State Department said in a statement that it was “aware of reports of the arrest of a US-Iranian dual citizen in Iran.”
Reports point to Reza Valizadeh, a former journalist at Voice of America sister network Radio Farda, who left the Persian-language network in 2022. He traveled to Tehran in February to visit family after living in the West for 14 years, according to his latest statements. Publish on 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 country’s authoritarian Islamist rulers.
A State Department spokesperson said: “We are working with our Swiss partners who serve as a US protection force in Iran to gather more information about this case.”
The spokesman added, “Iran routinely imprisons American citizens and citizens of other countries unfairly for political purposes. This practice is cruel and contrary to international law.”
An informed source inside Iran told Voice of America’s Persian service that Valizadeh was arrested in Iran in late September on charges of cooperating with Persian media abroad. The source requested anonymity due to Iran’s repeated harassment of individuals who provide public comments to Western media.
The Iran-based human rights group Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) and the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists reported in mid-October that Valizadeh had been detained 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 the other who previously worked with Valizadeh.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York acknowledged receiving a request from Voice of America to comment on Valizadeh’s case last week, but did not provide any response.
FILE – A view of the entrance sign to Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran, October 17, 2022.
The State Department “must use all available diplomatic channels to investigate Valizadeh’s detention and ensure his immediate and unhindered access to legal counsel,” Skylar Thompson, deputy director of the Washington-based HRAI, said in a letter to Voice of America.
In his last post on He said that he decided to return voluntarily, even without obtaining a prior written or verbal commitment that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard would not hinder his visit.
In Valizadeh’s previous X post, published in February upon his arrival in Iran, he said Iranian intelligence agents summoned his family members and pressured them to convince him to return.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian tried to convince Iranians living abroad that they had 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 ISNA.
Jason Brodsky, policy director at the US advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, told Voice of America that Valizadeh’s arrest should serve as a warning to Iranians with dual citizenship that Tehran’s assurances cannot be trusted.
“There have been cases over the years where Iranians abroad get permission from one government agency in Iran to enter, and then a competing agency arrests that person and holds them hostage,” Brodsky said.
Valizadeh was scheduled to be tried before Revolutionary Court Judge Abolghasem Salavati, according to sources cited by the human rights organization and independent Iranian journalist Najat Bahrami, who first reported Valizadeh’s arrest in a social media post on October 13. Harshly punish Iranian citizens and dual nationals for exercising their freedoms of expression or assembly.
“It appears as if Valizadeh is being unjustly detained,” said Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian political scientist who was herself detained in Iran from 2018 to 2020 on what Western countries said were false security charges.
In an email to Voice of America, Moore-Gilbert wrote that Valizadeh’s journalism “would certainly make him a person of interest to the IRGC.”
“The fact that he was referred to the Revolutionary Court in Salvati is also significant, as this judge is favored by the IRGC to handle political cases including the illegal detention of foreign and dual nationals,” she wrote.
Granting an unlawful detention designation to a US citizen means that US 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.
The designations are granted if the Secretary of State’s review concludes that the U.S. citizen’s case meets the criteria set forth in the Levinson Act of 2020.
Moore-Gilbert said any Valizadeh family members residing abroad or legal representatives should “immediately submit a request” to the US Secretary of State for an unlawful detention designation. She added that Valizadeh’s recent work as a journalist should make the process “relatively straightforward” unlike other cases.
A State Department spokesperson, who sent the statement to VOA, said the agency “continuously monitors the circumstances surrounding the detention of American citizens abroad for indications that the detentions may be unlawful.”
The Biden administration secured the release of five Iranian Americans it deemed unjustly detained in Iran in a September 2023 agreement in which five Iranians in the United States also received relief from detention and prosecution.
This deal is the only prisoner exchange between the United States and Iran during Biden’s term so far. It also included allowing the United States to transfer $6 billion of Iranian funds frozen under US sanctions in South Korean banks to Qatar for Iran to use for humanitarian purchases. A US Treasury Department spokesperson told US media last month that the funds remained “frozen” following Iran’s support for the Hamas terror attack on Israel in October 2023.
Brodsky said: “The arrest of Valizadeh raises questions about whether the Iranians are holding him hostage for an exchange that includes the movement of those assets in Qatar or something larger than that.”
He added: “Every time we make a deal like this, it encourages the Iranians to take more hostages.” He added, “Therefore, we need a comprehensive strategy, working with our allies and partners, to implement joint hostage-taking sanctions against Iran, including sanctions and diplomatic isolation.”
This report was produced in collaboration with Voice of America’s Persian service.
