US says Iranian-American journalist held in detention in Iran

Reza Valizadeh was arrested last month and faces trial on undisclosed charges; US seeking info on case, says Tehran ‘routinely imprisons US citizens’ for ‘political purposes’

Two men carry a banner of the late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini at the entrance of the former US Embassy, which has been turned into an anti-American museum, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Two men carry a banner of the late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini at the entrance of the former US Embassy, which has been turned into an anti-American museum, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

An Iranian-American journalist who once worked for a US government-funded broadcaster is believed to be detained by Iran for months now, authorities said Sunday, further raising the stakes as Tehran threatens to attack Israel.

The imprisonment of Reza Valizadeh, acknowledged to The Associated Press by the US State Department, came as Iran marked the 45th anniversary of the American Embassy takeover and hostage crisis on Sunday.

It also followed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatening both Israel and the US the day before with “a crushing response” to Israel’s retaliatory strikes on military sites in Iran.

Valizadeh had worked for Radio Farda, an outlet under Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that’s overseen by the US Agency for Global Media. In February, he wrote on the social platform X that his family members had been detained in an effort to see him return to Iran.

In August, Valizadeh apparently posted two messages suggesting he had returned to Iran despite Radio Farda being viewed by Iran’s theocracy as a hostile outlet.

“I arrived in Tehran on March 6, 2024. Before that, I had unfinished negotiations with the (Revolutionary Guard’s) intelligence department,” the message read in part. “Eventually I came back to my country after 13 years without any security guarantee, even a verbal one.”

Valizadeh added the name of a man who he claimed belonged to Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. The AP could not verify if the person worked for the ministry.

Rumors have been circulating for weeks that Valizadeh had been detained. The Human Rights Activists News Agency, which monitors cases in Iran, said that he had been detained on arrival to the country earlier this year, but later released.

He was then rearrested and sent to Evin prison, where he now faces a case in Iran’s Revolutionary Court, which routinely holds closed-door hearings in which defendants face secret evidence, the agency reported. Valizadeh had faced arrest in 2007 as well, it said.

The State Department told the AP that it was “aware of reports that this dual US-Iranian citizen has been arrested in Iran” when asked about Valizadeh.

“We are working with our Swiss partners who serve as the protecting power for the United States in Iran to gather more information about this case,” the State Department said. “Iran routinely imprisons US citizens and other countries’ citizens unjustly for political purposes. This practice is cruel and contrary to international law.”

A handout picture provided by the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on October 27, 2024, shows him waving before a meeting in Tehran. (AFP Photo/HO/Khamenei.IR)

Iran has not acknowledged detaining Valizadeh. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Voice of America, another US government-funded media outlet overseen by the Agency for Global Media, first reported the State Department was acknowledging Valizadeh’s detention in Iran.

Since the 1979 US Embassy crisis, which saw dozens of hostages released after 444 days in captivity, Iran has used prisoners with Western ties as bargaining chips in negotiations with the world. In September 2023, five Americans detained for years in Iran were freed in exchange for five Iranians in US custody and for $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets to be released by South Korea.

Valizadeh is the first American known to be detained by Iran in the time since.

Iranian-German national and US resident Jamshid Sharmahd attends his trial at the Revolutionary Court, in Tehran, Iran, February 6, 2022. (Koosha Mahshid Falahi/Mizan News Agency via AP)

Last week, Iran executed German-Iranian prisoner Jamshid Sharmahd, in what the German government called “a murder.” Sharmahd, who was a US resident, was accused of behind behind a 2008 bombing that killed 14 people.

Both the US and Germany called his trial a “sham,” and human rights group Amnesty International said he had been subjected to “enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment” while in prison.

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