Iran has reached an agreement with the United States to release five American citizens in exchange for the transfer of $6 billion of frozen Iranian assets in South Korea to banks in Qatar, as well as the release of a similar number of Iranians held by Washington. Below is a summary of some of the prisoners who will be released by Iran under the agreement:
**Siamak Namazi**
Siamak Namazi (51 years old) is a businessman with dual American and Iranian citizenship. He was arrested by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in 2015 while visiting family in Tehran. After several months, the authorities arrested his sick father, Baqer, after he returned to Iran to visit his imprisoned son. Both were sentenced to ten years in prison in 2016 on charges of espionage and collaboration with the U.S. government. Baqer Namazi, a former governor of an Iranian province, was placed under house arrest in 2018 for medical reasons and left Iran in 2022 for medical treatment abroad. Baqer also holds dual American and Iranian citizenship and previously worked with UNICEF.
**Emad Sharqi**
Sharqi (59 years old) and his wife moved to Iran from the United States in 2017. He was first arrested in 2018 while working for Sarafan Holding, a technology investment company. He was released on bail after eight months and acquitted by a revolutionary court of espionage and related security charges but remained under a travel ban. In November 2020, another revolutionary court summoned him and sentenced him to ten years in prison on espionage charges. Initially not imprisoned, Iranian media reported that authorities arrested him while trying to flee Iran in January 2021.
**Morad Tahbaz**
Tahbaz, a 67-year-old environmental activist with American, Iranian, and British citizenship, was arrested in 2018. He was sentenced to ten years in prison in 2019 for "gathering and colluding against Iranian national security" and "contacting the enemy U.S. government for espionage purposes."
The identities of the fourth and fifth prisoners have not been disclosed. It is unclear how many American citizens are held in Iran, as their families and the U.S. government typically prefer not to disclose their names in hopes of facilitating a quiet release.
**Iranian Prisoners in the U.S.**
The identities of the Iranians held in the United States who will be returning to their homeland under the agreement have not been revealed. Iran has been demanding the release of its nationals held in the U.S. for years. An Iranian judicial source told Reuters that there are at least 12 Iranian prisoners held by the United States, primarily for "violating U.S. sanctions on Iran."
