Jewish Iranian American released from notorious Evin prison but barred from leaving Iran

Family concerned that Kamran Hekmati, jailed over trip to Israel 13 years prior to arrest, not getting necessary medical treatment: ‘The Iranian regime couldn’t care less’

A Jewish Iranian American jeweler from New York was released from prison in Iran but remains prohibited from leaving the country, his family and US officials said Friday.

Kamran Hekmati was let out of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison on September 5 after completing about half of a two-year sentence, his family wrote on a website advocating for his release.

The family said they are also “desperately afraid for his health and well-being” as he requires regular medical checkups to ensure his bladder cancer doesn’t relapse.

“The Iranian regime couldn’t care less,” the family wrote of Hekmati’s medical challenges. “Much like other wrongful detention cases in Iran, Kamran appears to be caught up in Iran’s traditional approach of detaining Americans to obtain political concessions from the US.”

Representatives for the family and the US government did not say where Hekmati is currently staying in Iran.

But Shohreh Nowfar, Hekmati’s cousin in California, said that the family has been “excited” and hopeful that his passport can be returned soon so he can leave the country.

Family members embrace freed American Emad Shargi after he and four fellow detainees were released in a prisoner swap deal between the US and Iran, as he arrives at Davison Army Airfield, September 19, 2023, at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP)

The Iranian American owned a jewelry business in Manhattan’s Diamond District and lived with his family for years in Great Neck Estates, on suburban Long Island.

“We continue to hope this is a signal from the Iranian side as to their willingness to send Kamran home,” added Kieran Ramsey, chief investigative officer at Global Reach, a US nonprofit working on Hekmati’s case.

Charged over trip to Israel

Hekmati’s passport was seized in May 2025 as he tried to fly out of Tehran, and he was subsequently arrested by Iranian authorities that July.

An Iranian Revolutionary Court initially sentenced him to four years in prison in August 2025, then reduced the sentence to two years the following month. His family later appealed for his release on humanitarian grounds because of his cancer.

The notorious Evin Prison was heavily damaged during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June 2025, after which Iranian authorities detained or summoned for questioning at least 35 members of the Jewish communities in Tehran and Shiraz over alleged contacts with Israel.

It was not clear whether Hekmati was among those detained, but authorities had discovered that he held an Iranian passport, despite having moved to the United States as a child, and had traveled to Israel. Iran does not recognize dual citizenship.

Family members cheer as the plane carrying five American detainees freed by Iran in a prisoner swap deal arrives at Davison Army Airfield, September 19, 2023, at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP)

Hekmati’s family said he was charged under an Iranian law barring Iranian citizens from visiting Israel within the previous 10 years. They maintain, however, that his last trip to Israel was 13 years earlier — before the law was passed — for his son’s bar mitzvah.

“Mr. Hekmati did nothing wrong,” said US Representative Thomas Suozzi, a Long Island Democrat who advocated for the US State Department to officially designate Hekmati as wrongfully detained earlier this year. “We cannot rest until he is reunited with his family.”

Other Americans held in Iran

The US State Department has also called on Iran to lift its exit ban on Hekmati so he can return to the United States, and has demanded the “immediate release” of Iranian American journalist Reza Valizadeh and other Americans it says are unjustly detained in the country.

Valizadeh, a former journalist for Radio Farda, the US-funded Persian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, fled Iran in 2009 after reporting on pro-democracy protests and became a US citizen in 2022. He was detained after returning to Iran in 2024 to visit his elderly parents and was later sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of collaborating with the US government. Washington has designated him as wrongfully detained.

That designation, which Hekmati also received in March, places a detainee’s case under the supervision of the State Department office responsible for hostage affairs and the US government’s chief hostage negotiator. Hekmati and Valizadeh are the two Americans currently publicly designated as wrongfully detained in Iran, while as many as eight other unnamed Americans are subject to exit bans, according to Ramsey.

A history of prisoner exchanges

Iran has previously released detained Americans as part of negotiated exchanges with Washington. In September 2023, Tehran freed five Americans, including Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz and Emad Sharghi, in a deal that also saw nearly $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets transferred to restricted accounts in Qatar and five Iranians in US custody freed.

US officials arrange a group photo after freed Americans Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz and Emad Shargi, as well as two returnees not yet named by the US government, who were released in a prisoner swap deal between the US and Iran, arrived at Davison Army Airfield, September 19, 2023, at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP)

In 2016, Iran released four dual nationals — including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and former US Marine Amir Hekmati, who is not related to Kamran Hekmati — as part of another prisoner exchange.

Western governments have repeatedly accused Tehran of detaining foreign and dual nationals on spurious charges in order to extract political or financial concessions, an accusation Iran rejects.