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Posted: Oct 26, 2021 / 3:02 PM CDT
Updated: 10/26/2021 / 7:16 PM CDT
FILE – In this file photo dated March 7, 2019, Babak Namazi, the son of Baquer Namazi, who was detained in Iran, testifies before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Capitol Hill in Washington. Baquer Namazi, an 84-year-old American-Iranian man who has been detained in Iran for more than five years, underwent an operation on Tuesday, October 26, 2021, to clear a blockage in an artery in the brain that his family and its supporters have been described as life threatening. Namazi’s son Babak called on Iran weeks ago to lift a travel ban that his father had kept in the country so that he could receive medical care in another country. (AP Photo / Susan Walsh, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) – An 84-year-old Iranian-American man who has been incarcerated in Iran for more than five years underwent surgery on Tuesday to clear a blockage in a cerebral artery that his family and followers have described as life-threatening. threatening.
The operation on Baquer Namazi “seems to have been a success and Baquer is awake even though he is still battered,” said a statement from Namazi’s lawyer Jared Genser. He is expected to remain in the intensive care unit for two more days and then transferred to a general recovery unit prior to discharge.
Genser and Namazi’s son Babak called on Iran weeks ago to lift a travel ban that had kept his father in the country so that he could receive medical care in another country. Genser filed a letter with the United Nations earlier this month saying Iran’s actions violated Namazi’s rights.
Instead, the operation took place in Iran, and Genser said that while the family were grateful that the operation went well, “there are pressing concerns about the quality of follow-up care available in Iran, the significant risk of Covid-19 exposure in the hospital and the need for a stress-free environment for recovery, all of which threaten Baquer’s survival and long-term well-being. “
He reiterated his request that Iran allow Namazi to leave the country immediately in order to continue his medical recovery and reunite with his family.
Namazi, a former UNICEF representative and dual Iranian-American citizen, was arrested in 2016 when he was traveling to Tehran to visit his son Siamak Namazi, a businessman who was arrested in Iran months earlier. Both Namazis were sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran because the United States and the United Nations call it trumped-up espionage charges.
Baquer Namazi was granted medical leave in 2018 and his sentence was subsequently commuted to serving, but the Iranian authorities have not allowed him to leave the country. Siamak Namazi remains in Iran’s notorious Evin prison.
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