When Abdolreza “Reza” Valizadeh returned to Iran within the spring of 2024, it was the primary time he had set foot in his dwelling nation in 15 years. The veteran journalist, who had spent greater than a decade in exile, traveled to Iran to see and look after his growing older mother and father.
Six months later, he was in solitary confinement in Tehran’s infamous Evin Jail.
Valizadeh, a 49-year-old twin U.S.-Iranian citizen and longtime critic of Iran’s safety institution, was arrested on Sept. 22, 2024, by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). His detention, detailed in a petition filed Tuesday by his legal professional with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, comes amid Iran’s sweeping crackdown on protests throughout the nation, and as tensions with Washington simmer.
The State Division formally designated Valizadeh as “wrongfully detained” in Could 2025, inserting his case underneath the authority of the U.S. authorities’s hostage affairs workplace. Valizadeh is one in all at the least 4 Iranian-People presently held in Iran, together with 70-year-old Kamran Hekmati and at the least one different septuagenarian, a girl, sources accustomed to the matter confirmed to CBS Information.
“In lodging this petition to the UN, alongside pulling each lever of energy obtainable to us in D.C., we’re dedicated to bringing consideration to Reza’s case, not solely to safe his launch, however to ship an unequivocal message that the focusing on of U.S. residents overseas won’t be tolerated,” Ryan Fayhee, counsel to Valizadeh and a companion on the regulation agency Akin Gump, mentioned in a press release.
“Each day that Reza stays behind bars, the Iranian regime is emboldened to focus on People who dare to advocate for fact, justice, and a greater future for the Iranian individuals,” Fayhee mentioned.
Courtesy of Valizadeh Household
Valizadeh’s case continues to unfold towards a risky backdrop inside Iran, the place thousands of protesters are believed to have been killed, and plenty of hundreds extra arrested, as authorities have cracked down on latest demonstrations over financial hardship and political repression. A near-total web and communications blackout has been in place for greater than two weeks.
U.S. officers have condemned Tehran’s treatment of protesters, warning of additional financial strain — and attainable navy strikes — whereas leaving open the potential for talks. Iranian leaders have accused Washington of interference, elevating issues amongst rights advocates that People held in Iran may very well be used as leverage as tensions sharpen.
President Trump mentioned final week he held off on hanging Iran after being assured by the regime that the executions of a whole bunch of protesters had been “canceled,” however in a latest interview known as for “new management” in Iran. The usS. Abraham Lincoln plane service strike group has begun to maneuver west from the Indo-Pacific in the direction of the Center East, CBS Information has confirmed, and is predicted to reach within the coming days.
“The Trump administration is intently monitoring Mr. Valizadeh’s case. President Trump has been clear that he desires each wrongfully detained American returned dwelling,” a senior administration official advised CBS Information.
The State Division and a spokesperson for the Everlasting Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
“These People should come dwelling”
Valizadeh turned a U.S. citizen in 2022 by means of his work for U.S.-funded broadcaster Radio Farda, the Persian department of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Based on messages relayed to his legal professional by his household, Valizadeh believed he had been given assurances by Iranian authorities that it was protected to return to Tehran, the place most of his household resides. His brother has mentioned he now believes these ensures had been a part of a entice, presumably involving a former colleague who had ties to the IRGC.
Reporting by Persian-language media later cited sources who mentioned Iranian intelligence had hoped to strain Valizadeh into cooperating towards his former employer, Radio Farda, for which he reported on corruption, protests and the affect of the IRGC. He refused.
Days later, IRGC brokers detained him on a Tehran road, confiscated his belongings, together with his U.S. passport, and took him to Evin Jail, the place he spent weeks in isolation and underneath intense interrogation. Iranian officers didn’t publicly acknowledge his arrest for practically two months.
Valizadeh was finally charged with “collaborating with a hostile authorities,” a imprecise nationwide safety offense that Iranian authorities routinely use towards journalists and activists.
In December 2024, after what the petition to the U.N. describes as a sham trial lasting lower than an hour, and through which the choose acted as each prosecutor and adjudicator, Valizadeh was sentenced to 10 years in jail. His enchantment to the regime was rejected in January 2025.
Since then, his household says Valizadeh’s well being has steadily deteriorated. He suffers from bronchial asthma, which has been worsened by overcrowded cells, poor air high quality and publicity to smoke and particles — circumstances that intensified after Israeli airstrikes struck components of Evin Jail in June 2025 throughout the 12-day battle between Israel and Iran. He has endured frequent coughing suits and has been denied primary medicines, dental care and remedy for gastrointestinal issues.
After the June strikes, Valizadeh was amongst prisoners who had been shackled and transferred to a different facility with out their belongings or drugs, in line with the U.N. submitting, earlier than being returned to Evin Jail, the place his brother says he now shares a small cell with as much as 18 different inmates amid extreme shortages of meals, water, sanitation and medical care.
Attorneys for different Americans who had been wrongfully detained have petitioned the U.N. for assist in the latest previous. They included Baquer Namazi, who was permitted to depart Iran for life-saving surgical procedure within the UAE in 2022, and Ryan Corbett, who was imprisoned by the Taliban in Afghanistan and launched in a prisoners swap in January 2025.
“Household is on the coronary heart of the Iranian tradition. That is why so many Iranian People journey again to Iran — to go to aged mother and father and join with prolonged household. Sadly, this respect for household can be what offers the regime a gentle inflow of twin nationals to feast on,” Neda Sharghi, the sister of former wrongful detainee Emad Shargi and an advocate for American hostages and their households, advised CBS Information. (The siblings use barely totally different spellings of their final title.)
“President Trump has witnessed the brutality of the Iranian regime. He additionally is aware of that we have now harmless People, like just lately detained Reza Valizadeh and Kamran Hekmati, amongst others, ensnared within the regime’s hostage-taking tentacles. These People should come dwelling and President Trump and his staff have proven us that, at the least in the case of American hostages and wrongful detainees, they are going to do no matter they should attain their freedom,” Sharghi mentioned.
With assist from Sharghi and Valizadeh’s household, Fayhee has obtained since September three pre-recorded voice messages from Valizadeh describing the circumstances of his detention. The final got here on Dec. 20.
Neither Valizadeh nor his household have been involved since Iran’s crackdown and nationwide web blackout started.
