Mohrad Tahbaz has not been able to leave Iran yet
(Picture: Handout)The release of Nazanin-Zaghari Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori represented a watershed moment in negotiations with the Iranian government – but many more dual nationals remain in detention.
Iran does not recognise dual nationality and dozens of people are still reportedly being held in the country’s prisons.
Many were detained while visiting the country for family reasons and later convicted of vague, politicised crimes such as espionage or “working with a foreign state”.
The Standard looks at some of the dual nationals still being held in Iran.
Morad Tahbaz (Iran-UK-US)
The businessman and conservationist, who holds American and British citizenship, was arrested in January 2018. Though he was released on furlough on Wednesday, he has not been permitted to travel back to the UK.
Iran convicted Mr Tahbaz, along with seven other environmentalists including his colleagues, on charges of spying for the US. He was sentenced to 10 years and taken to Evin Prison.
The 66-year old had served on the board of the Persian Heritage Wildlife association, a prominent conservation group in Iran.
Foreign secretary Liz Truss said that ministers would “continue to work to secure Morad’s departure from Iran”.
Siamak and Baquer Namazi (Iran-US)
Both Siamak, 50, and Baquer Namazi, 85, were arrested in 2016 and later sentenced to 10 years in prison for “co-operating with a foreign enemy state”.
Siamak had worked as head of strategic planning at the Dubai-based Crescent Petroleum and had travelled to Tehran in a bid to free his father, who was detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in February 2016.
Baquer’s sentence was commuted in 2020 – but the Iranian government still refuses to allow him to depart Iran.
He requires specialised medical care and remains separated from his family in the United States.
Emad Shargi (US-Iran)
The Iranian-American businessman was detained by the Revolutionary Guards in April 2018 having moved to Iran the year before.
At the time of his arrest, he was working in sales for venture capital fund Sarava. He was later convicted on spying charges, which he denied.
Officials released him on bail in December that year, though authorities would not return his passport.
Shargi was convicted of espionage in absentia in November 2020 and sentenced to ten years in prison. His daughter wrote in the Washington Post in April 2021 that he was “trapped in terrible conditions” in jail.
Fariba Adelkhah (France-Iran)
Fariba Adelkhah, a researcher at the Sciences-Po university in Paris, was arrested in Tehran in June 2019.
She had travelled to the country to study Shia clerics in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.
Officials accused her of espionage but dropped the charge before her trial began in April 2020. However, she was convicted of conspiring against national security the following month.
French President Emmanuel Macron has called for her release, branding her imprisonment “entirely arbitrary”.
Kamran Ghaderi (Iran-Austria)
Mr Ghaderi, who runs Austria-based IT management and consulting company Avanoc, was arrested while on a business trip to Iran in January 2016.
He was sentenced to ten years in prison after being convicted of espionage and co-operating with a hostile state.
UN officials in 2019 claimed he had been denied access to medical care and had suffered a tumour in his leg.
In January 2022, his wife told the Guardian that the Iranian state may want something from the EU to enable his release – rather than something directly from Austria.
