Iran confirms granting brief prison leave to ailing US citizen

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s judiciary confirms that it granted leave to an ailing 81-year-old US citizen convicted of espionage.

The judiciary’s website, Mizanonline.ir, quotes spokesman for the judiciary Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi as saying “I think his leave has come to an end today or yesterday,” referring to jailed Iranian-American dual citizen Baquer Namazi.

Ejehi says Namazi was not freed but had his three-day leave extended for another three days for medical checkups.

The temporary reprieve came almost two years to the day after he was arrested in Iran while trying to secure the release of his son, Siamak, a businessman who had been arrested a few months earlier. Both men were eventually convicted of espionage.

— AP