He wants to get the attention of President Joe Biden. An American citizen imprisoned in Iran announced the start of a hunger strike on Monday in the hope of being released from Tehran jails. “All I ask, sir, is that one minute of your time in the next seven days be devoted to the plight of the American hostages in Iran,” Siamak Namazi wrote in an open letter.
“Only the President of the United States has the power to bring us home, if he decides to look into it,” he added. Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-born businessman, was arrested in October 2015 in Iran on espionage charges which he continues to deny. His father Baquer Namazi, a former Unicef official, was arrested on his way to the country to try to free his son. He was finally allowed to leave Iran last October.
Anniversary of the release of five Americans
Siamak Namazi had been released from prison for a time before being incarcerated in the notorious Evin prison, which has since suffered a fire in a country rocked by protests.
This hunger strike comes on the anniversary of the release, in 2016, of five Americans on the sidelines of the signing of the Iranian nuclear agreement, since denounced by the United States on the decision of Donald Trump. In October, the US State Department said the United States was “doing everything it could” to secure the release of US citizens detained in Iran.