At least two women and two men with both Iranian and American citizenship have been deprived of their liberty in Iran, according to human rights groups and the families of those imprisoned.
Two of them were arrested by security agents after the American attacks on Iran's nuclear power plants during the twelve-day war between Israel and Iran in June. The woman has been held in the notorious Evin prison, but since it was attacked in the war, it is unclear where she is.
The other woman was deprived of her liberty in December 2024. She is currently released but both her passports have been seized so she cannot leave the country. A male journalist was arrested in October 2024 and has been sentenced to ten years in prison for "cooperation with a hostile government".
The President of the USA, Donald Trump, has previously said that he does not tolerate countries that wrongly deprive Americans of their liberty. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that they "closely follow" the reports but do not want to comment further on the matter.
For decades, Iran has used so-called hostage diplomacy where foreign citizens and persons with dual citizenship are arbitrarily arrested. They are used to then negotiate with the outside world.
Among them is the Swedish-Iranian researcher Ahmadreza Djalali, imprisoned in Iran since 2016, and sentenced to death for espionage for Israel.
