Iran has granted a medical furlough to a US Navy veteran who has been imprisoned in Iran for more than a year, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces.
An undated photo of US Navy veteran Michael White, who was arrested in Iran in July 2018 while visiting his girlfriend. (screen capture: NBC news)
Michael White of Imperial Beach, California, is now in the custody of the Swiss Embassy and must remain in Iran as a condition of his furlough, which was granted as Iran works to curb the spread of coronavirus. The US government will seek his full release, Pompeo says, and he calls on Iran to free other Americans who remain jailed there.
A spokesman for the White family says the family is grateful to the Iranian government for an “interim humanitarian step.”
“We continue to urge them to release Michael unconditionally so that he can return to the United States to receive the advanced medical care he needs,” spokesman Jon Franks says.
White, who has been imprisoned since July 2018, was visiting a girlfriend in Iran when he was detained. White was convicted of insulting Iran’s supreme leader and posting private information. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, though the State Department says he was serving a 13-year sentence.
— AP
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