Former Iran Detainees: Publicity Helped Their Case
When Haleh Esfandiari was arrested by Iranian officials in 2007, she and her family had a plan: Go public with her plight. As the Iranian-American citizen sat in prison, her supporters appeared frequently in the media and appealed to U.S. and Iranian representatives.
Four months later, Esfandiari was released.
The decision to publicly pressure the Tehran government stands in stark contrast to the case of another Iranian-American currently held in an Iranian prison. Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine, was sentenced to death earlier this year by an Iranian court after being convicted of working for the CIA. Relatives deny the allegations and hired an attorney and a crisis public relations firm, but unlike Esfandiari, they are keeping quiet about the case.
“If the (Hekmati) family was going to call me today and say, ‘What is your experience?’ I would tell them that in my case going public helped,” said Esfandiari, director of Middle East Programs at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
Tensions have been high for years between the U.S. and Iran, and several dual citizens have been jailed by the Iranian government on various charges. Though in many cases, families, employers and other supporters have been outspoken in their pleas for release, the political maneuvering inside the Iranian government and the fact that the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with Tehran make it difficult to know which approach works best.
In Hekmati’s case, the stakes are especially high. He is the first U.S. citizen to be sentenced to death in Iran since the Islamic Revolution 33 years ago.