Three were serving prison terms and now have received a commutation or pardon.
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French prosecutors launch a manslaughter investigation into how an experimental trial for a painkiller led to one man’s death and the hospitalization of five others.
The Americans released by Iran in a swap with the United States have landed in Geneva.
United by faith, these Christians in Des Moines are celebrating the release of a man they’ve never met. The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog in Vienna is expected to confirm Saturday that Iran has complied with its vow to constrain nuclear activity as part of last year’s landmark deal between Iran and six world powers.
Reuters has also found four cases in which the U.S. Justice Department moved to drop charges against overseas Iranians. A fifth American was released separately.
Three Americans freed by Iran in a prisoner swap have arrived in Germany at Ramstein Air Base, White House officials tell CNN and the Free Amir Hekmati Twitter account confirmed in a Tweet.
Arash Ghahreman, convicted in 2015 of trying to export US-built marine navigation equipment to Iran, was also released, his attorney Ellis Johnston said on Sunday.
The U.S. freed seven Iranian prisoners in the trade.
U.S. officials said Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati, and pastor Saeed Abedini were on the flight, but not Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari.
His family had previously said that Hekmati has lost significant weight in prison and has trouble breathing, raising fears he could contract tuberculosis.
“He wanted people to know that Iranians have the same aspirations and hopes and dreams for their families that people all around the west and everywhere else do, and to get rid of this one-dimensional view of Iran”, said his brother Ali, who was the main spokesman for the family. “But I’ve not been formally informed if he is free now”, he said, adding that negotiations for the prisoners’ release has been going on for the past two months.
In return, the U.S.is pardoning or commuting the sentence of an Iranian and six dual citizens.
American officials didn’t want the citizens used as leverage in the nuclear talks, and didn’t want to lose their possible release if the talks failed to produce an agreement.
Republican presidential candidates had slammed the Obama administration for striking the multinational nuclear deal with Iran while Americans were held captive.
A ministry statement says the plane is carrying three of the released Iranian-Americans and the mother and wife of one of the former captives, but didn’t identify them.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also praised the Obama administration and said “this good news shows that diplomacy can work even in this volatile region of the world”.
Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran in 2007 while working for the CIA on an unapproved intelligence mission, wasn’t part of the deal. “Today is a good day for the Iranian people as sanctions will be lifted today”, the ISNA agency quoted him as saying.
Bahram Mechanich and Tooraj Faridi, both of Houston, and Khosrow Afghahi, of Los Angeles, were released, along with four other Iranians held in other parts of the U.S., Mechanich’s attorney Joel Androphy said. It didn’t provide any further details.
Modanlou, 55, was convicted in 2013 of several offenses connected to a scheme to illegally export satellite technology to Iran. “I’m just overjoyed that it’s about to be over”, he said.
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“Isolation, as you might expect, was the most hard thing”.
