“We’ve all been watching this very closely for the time he’s been in prison and we’re just thrilled to hear he’s being released and so happy that he’s going to be coming back home to his friends and family”.
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Idaho Senator Mike Crapo released a statement today regarding Saeed’s release saying, “Iran’s holding of Pastor Abedini was outrageous and it was far past time for him to be released”.
The newspaper and the United States have called the charges “absurd”.
Madanloo, of Maryland, is serving an eight-year sentence for conspiring to illegally provide satellite services to Iran, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
They include four who are part of a prisoner swap deal: Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, Marine veteran Amir Hekmati and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini.
The official said the US government would be able to give more details about the Iranians who were granted pardons or clemency after the USA citizens had left Iran.
Asked about criticism from Republicans that the administration had given up too much, the same official responded: “As president, you have to make a decision: Would it be better to leave these Americans there with sentences that stretched on because we don’t want to make a reciprocal humanitarian gesture?…”
It was an I-told-you-so moment for a president who has bet his foreign policy legacy on the high-stakes nuclear agreement with Tehran that has been denounced by his critics as a capitulation to an untrustworthy USA enemy.
But Rezaian, a bureau chief for the Post in Tehran since 2012, appeared to have been a victim of both global and Iranian domestic politics.
“He’s been incarcerated for nine months for a crime that he’s just accused of but did not commit”, said lawyer Joel Androphy.
He added, “After almost a year and a half of arbitrary delays, and an unfair, opaque judicial process, Jason’s release has brought indescribable relief and joy to our family – this nightmare is approaching an end”.
The five Americans had been detained in separate cases, some as early as 2011.
Iranian state television is announced that the government has freed four dual-nationality prisoners. All three are Iranian-American dual citizens and had pleaded not guilty. According to a USA official, Iran has committed to continue cooperating with the United States to try and determine Levinson’s whereabouts.
News of the reported exchange came as world leaders converged Saturday in Vienna in anticipation of the end of worldwide sanctions against Iran in return for significantly curtailing its nuclear program.
“I am overcome with emotion that after four and a half years, this awful ordeal is ending and the Hekmati family will soon be reunited with Amir”, Kildee said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will join Federica Mogherini of the European Union and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Vienna, the headquarters of the U.N’s International Atomic Energy Agency, later Saturday.
Iran charged Hekmati with espionage and other charges in 2012 and sentenced him to death.
Rezaian and the other former prisoners are expected to travel to Switzerland, and then to a US military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. “When Americans are freed and returned to their families, that’s something we can all celebrate”. “Because it all became real”, the congressman told CNN.
Hekmati, 32, had been held in an Iranian prison since August 29, 2011.
The official said the United States expects to impose new sanction “designations” against Iran for recent ballistic missile tests, but declined to outline the timing for that move.
Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran in 2007 while working for the CIA on an unapproved intelligence mission, wasn’t part of the deal. “But once again, Bob Levinson has been left behind”.
“In line with the order of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and the interests of the country, Iran has released four Iranian dual-national prisoners as a part of prisoners swap”, the announcement said. In return, the White House promised to pardon seven Iranians who were accused of violating US sanctions against the Middle East power.
Iranian state television first announced the prisoner exchange on Saturday.
The exchange eases a leading irritant as the two countries gingerly explore prospects for a smoother relationship after decades of hostility – even as they remain sharply at odds on other fronts.
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A source familiar with the case of a fourth man identified him as Ali Saboonchi.
