Baquer Namazi, a US citizen barred from leaving Iran, requires quick surgical procedure overseas to stop a deadly stroke, his son advised reporters Monday.
“Up to now a number of weeks, my household’s worst fears have come to a head,” Babak Namazi mentioned in a digital press briefing on Monday.
“My father has already misplaced a lot treasured time,” he mentioned. “I’m begging Iran to let him spend no matter small period of time he has left along with his household, my brother Siamak included.”
Baquer and his son Siamak are amongst 4 twin Iranian-Americans whose launch the Biden administration has been making an attempt to safe as a part of oblique negotiations with the Islamic Republic.
Baquer, a former UNICEF official, was arrested in February 2016 by members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who lured him to Iran on the premise he might go to his son, a businessman who was detained a number of months earlier than.
Each males have been convicted in October 2016 of collaborating with america and sentenced to 10 years in jail in a trial human rights teams described as a sham. After two years within the infamous Evin Jail, the senior Namazi was positioned on a restrictive medical furlough and later had his sentence commuted.
However regardless of his quickly declining well being, he’s nonetheless barred from leaving the nation. His household on Monday submitted an pressing attraction to the UN Particular Rapporteur on the Proper to Well being, explaining that Iran’s refusal to raise a journey ban on him has posed a right away and grave danger to his life.
The 15-page submission particulars the 84-year-old’s deteriorating medical situation, together with the lately found 95-97% blockage in one of many arteries supplying blood to his mind. Neurologists have advisable Namazi endure surgical procedure throughout the subsequent seven to 10 days to keep away from a deadly stroke. The household believes acquiring surgical procedure overseas provides him the most effective likelihood of survival, quite than in Iran the place poorly resourced hospitals are overrun with COVID-19.
“Iran’s leaders have identified intimately for years about Baquer’s declining well being,” mentioned Jared Genser, the Namazi household’s professional bono lawyer in Washington. “They’re due to this fact totally, utterly and completely liable for something that occurs to him now.”
The arterial blockage is the newest well being scare for Namazi, who throughout his detention was hospitalized greater than a dozen instances, misplaced a number of tooth and had two coronary heart surgical procedures, his son mentioned. He suffered from arrhythmia and different severe coronary heart circumstances earlier than his arrest and has since developed stress-induced, adult-onset epilepsy.
“Since my father’s arrest, we now have lived day-after-day with the worry that it may very well be his final,” Babak mentioned. “Watching his detention in Evin Jail from afar whereas he underwent hospitalization and emergency surgical procedures was a sort of torture I’d not need to want on my worst enemy.”
The destiny of the detained US residents is a significant sticking level in Washington’s dealings with Tehran. Along with the Namazis, Iran is holding businessman Emad Sharg and Morad Tahbaz, an environmentalist who additionally holds British citizenship.
Because the Biden administration works to salvage the landmark nuclear deal, US negotiators have engaged in separate, oblique discussions with Iran over the detained residents. Bringing the 4 Individuals house is a prime precedence, US officers say.
However the Namazi household has heard similar assurances before, having watched as Siamak was left behind in Iran as a part of a 2016 prisoner swap that was negotiated by the Obama administration.
“The underside line is, we’ve had now three administrations fail the Namazis,” Genser mentioned. “We actually want President [Joe] Biden to ship.”
