Siamak Namazi: Family of US citizen detained in Iran still waiting to hear from Biden

US President's ‘silence’ shows administration's lack of interest in American 'hostages', detained Iranian-American businessman says

Siamak Namazi has spent five five years in prison in Iran to become the longest serving US-Iranian in the country's prison system. Family handout

Six weeks after Siamak Namazi “desperately” pleaded from inside Iran’s Evin prison for US President Joe Biden’s help, his family say they have yet to hear from the White House.

Mr Namazi, 51, an Iranian-American businessman, has been held in Tehran on espionage charges since October 2015.

In March, he spoke to CNN from inside Evin prison, where he has been held for most of the past seven years, imploring the Biden administration to help secure his release.

But his emotional appeal appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

“The silence I have received from President Biden in response to my despairing plea to him last month on CNN from an Evin prison cell hardly gives the impression that rescuing the US hostages in Iran is a Biden administration priority,” Mr Namazi said in a statement released by his lawyer Jared Genser.

Mr Namazi is one of three Americans- being held in Evin on similar charges. The US government has deemed them all to be wrongfully imprisoned.

The other two detained are businessman Emad Shargi, who was jailed in October 2018, and conservationist Morad Tahbaz, who has been held since January 2018.

The lack of progress on his and his fellow detainees' cases is “seriously dispiriting and unnerving”, Mr Namazi said.

While Mr Namazi pleaded for Mr Biden's help from prison, his father, Baquer Namazi, who was also held in Iran for several years, implored the US leader to meet him and hear his family's story.

The White House has not responded to the elder Mr Namazi’s request, the family said.

"President Biden and Secretary Blinken have no higher priority than the safety and security of our American citizens when they are abroad, especially those who have been arbitrarily detained," said State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel.

He added that the administration was "regularly" working to "engage" with the families of Americans that have been wrongfully detained abroad.