At least two American citizens, including 71-year-old Jewish-American Kamran Hekmati of New York, have been designated by the United States as wrongfully detained in Iran, a status that allows Washington to use significant legal and diplomatic tools in efforts to secure their release.
In an interview with NBC that aired earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump was asked whether any future deal with Iran would include the release of American citizens held in the country.
“Nobody really has a precise list of who they are, what their condition is or whether they are being held,” Trump said. “If you give me their names, I’ll do my best to bring them home.”
Hekmati, a businessman in Manhattan’s Diamond District, holds dual American and Iranian citizenship. Fourteen years ago, he visited Israel for his son’s bar mitzvah. About a year ago, he traveled to Iran for a short visit to see relatives and was arrested. He has since been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison.
According to reports, Hekmati was arrested at the airport on the grounds that he violated an Iranian law barring citizens of the country from visiting Israel. Hekmati was born in Iran and immigrated to the United States at age 13, but entered Iran using an Iranian passport, as required under local law because Tehran does not recognize dual citizenship. He was later sentenced to prison.
The second detainee is Reza Valizadeh, a 50-year-old journalist who also holds dual Iranian-American citizenship. After leaving Iran in 2009, Valizadeh returned to the country for the first time in March 2024 to visit his elderly parents. He said he had received assurances from a senior commander in the Revolutionary Guards that he would not face problems upon his return.
But in September 2024, Valizadeh was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards.
Evin Prison in Tehran, which was hit during Operation Rising Lion
(Video: AP)
Since his arrest, Valizadeh has been held in solitary confinement and interrogated for an extended period. He was later sentenced to 10 years in prison, without due process, on charges of “cooperation with a hostile government,” a vague accusation often used by Iranian authorities against dual nationals and critics of the regime.
In May 2025, the U.S. secretary of state formally designated Valizadeh as wrongfully detained.
Concern has been growing in the United States over the health and welfare of both men. Hekmati’s family told CNN that he has cancer.
Lawyers representing the families told CNN in April that they had received assurances that the American negotiating team was aware of the detainees’ situation. Another source involved in the matter said their names had previously been passed to the negotiating team.
Valizadeh also managed to send an audio recording from Evin Prison to CBS. In the recording, he referred to three other American citizens held in the notorious Tehran prison and said all were suffering from “various illnesses” while being denied medical treatment.