The Biden administration has condemned Iran for sentencing an Iranian American dual national to 10 years in prison, in the only publicly reported case of a U.S. citizen being jailed by the Islamic Republic since a rare U.S.-Iran prisoner swap in September 2023.
“We are aware of reports dual Iranian-U.S. citizen journalist Reza Valizadeh has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran,” a State Department spokesperson said in a Monday email, responding to a VOA inquiry.
“We strongly condemn this sentencing and call for his immediate release and the release of all political prisoners in Iran,” the spokesperson added.
It was the first U.S. confirmation that Valizadeh had been jailed in Iran since reports emerged in October that he had been detained in Iran in late September. He is a former journalist for VOA sister network Radio Farda. Valizadeh left Radio Farda, the Persian-language service, in 2022.
He flew to Tehran in February to visit his family after living in the West for 14 years, according to his last post on the X platform, formerly Twitter, in August.
Valizadeh’s lawyer, Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, broke the news of his client’s sentencing in a Saturday post on X. He wrote that an Iranian court recently ruled Valizadeh should face 10 years in prison, as well as a two-year travel ban, a two-year ban on residing in Tehran province and its neighboring provinces, and a two-year prohibition on membership in parties or groups.
In a Sunday interview with VOA Persian TV, Aghasi said Valizadeh had been convicted of cooperating with a hostile government, a reference to the United States.
“This was a heavy sentence in my opinion based on an incorrect charge,” Aghasi said. “In the past, working for media outlets like Voice of America had been viewed [by Iranian courts] as engaging in propaganda against [Iran’s Islamist ruling] system, but [the charge for this activity] recently changed into cooperating with a hostile government.”
Iran views VOA, Radio Farda and other Western-based Persian media as hostile entities because they draw attention to public dissent and protests against the nation's authoritarian Islamist rulers.
Aghasi told VOA Persian he was hopeful of mounting a successful appeal against Valizadeh's verdict in a higher court.
In a statement sent to VOA, Stephen Capus, the president and CEO of Radio Farda’s parent network, RFE/RL, said Valizadeh is an American citizen who has been unjustly charged, convicted and sentenced.
Capus wrote: “Time and again, the Iranian regime has attempted to spread its malign influence around the world, trampling on human rights at every opportunity. Clearly, this regime feels threatened by the forces of freedom, including independent journalism. It's why Radio Farda's mission of providing uncensored news and other programming to the Iranian people is more important than ever. Journalism is not a crime. Reza should be released to his family immediately.”
Iranian officials have said little publicly about Valizadeh’s case beyond noting media reports that he had been arrested and pledging to look into the matter.
In a separate message to VOA, Aghasi said there has been no reference to Valizadeh in the Persian platforms of Iranian state media.
Iran’s U.N. mission in New York did not immediately respond to a VOA request sent Monday, seeking a comment on the U.S. condemnation of Valizadeh’s sentencing.
In an August interview with state news agency ISNA, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iranians living abroad have nothing to fear by returning and pledged that if they do, “we will not file a case against them, we will not harass them, and we will not prevent them from leaving.”
In his VOA Persian interview, Aghasi said Valizadeh had received similar assurances from Iranian security agencies before traveling to Iran. But he said after Valizadeh entered, Iranian security agents engaged with him for six months before ultimately arresting him.
Aghasi said Iranian authorities have kept Valizadeh in a special prison security ward even though it is customary to transfer inmates to the general ward after completing preliminary investigations. He said Valizadeh’s ongoing detention in the security ward and authorities’ refusal to allow him to meet his client amount to illegal restrictions that he protests.
“The Iranian government has repeatedly suppressed press freedom through threats, intimidation, detentions, forced confessions and the use of violence against journalists in Iran,” the U.S. State Department spokesperson wrote to VOA.
The spokesperson said the State Department reminds U.S. citizens of a warning on the travel.state.gov website, which says: “Do not travel to Iran, due to the risk of kidnapping and the arbitrary arrest and detention of U.S. citizens.”
Aghasi issued his own warning to Iranians who consider traveling to Iran after working with Western-based media outlets, saying they are mistaken if they believe expressing remorse to Iranian authorities for such work will spare them from prison.
“Everyone should know that for the Iranian judiciary, people who collaborate with overseas-based Iranian opposition media have committed a crime that cannot be mitigated in any way,” Aghasi told VOA Persian.
This article was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian Service.
