New York Jeweler Freed from Iran's Evin Prison but Barred from Leaving

An Iranian American jeweler from New York has been released from Tehran's Evin prison, but he is barred from leaving Iran, according to his family and federal officials.

Kamran Hekmati, who turned 62 in August, walked out of the high-security facility on Sept. 5 after serving roughly half of a two-year sentence, his family said on a website campaigning for his release.

The family said they are "desperately afraid for his health and well-being," noting that he needs regular medical checkups to guard against a relapse of bladder cancer. They accused Iranian authorities of indifference to his condition and described his case as part of what they called Iran's practice of detaining Americans to extract political concessions from Washington.

Representatives for the family and the U.S. government did not disclose where Hekmati is staying in Iran. His cousin in California, Shohreh Nowfar, said the family was "excited" and hopeful that his passport would be returned soon so he could leave the country, which has been at war with the United States and Israel for more than six months.

"We continue to hope this is a signal from the Iranian side as to their willingness to send Kamran home," said Kieran Ramsey, chief investigative officer at Global Reach, a U.S. nonprofit working on the case.

Hekmati, who is Jewish, owns a jewelry business in Manhattan's Diamond District and has lived with his family for years in Great Neck Estates on suburban Long Island. Iranian authorities arrested him last July after seizing his passport that May as he tried to fly out of Tehran's airport.

His family says he was charged under an Iranian law barring citizens from visiting Israel within the previous 10 years, but they maintain his last trip there was 13 years ago — before the law was passed — for his son's bar mitzvah.

"Mr. Hekmati did nothing wrong," said U.S. Rep. Thomas Suozzi, a Long Island Democrat who pushed the State Department this year to formally designate him as wrongfully detained. "We cannot rest until he is reunited with his family."

The State Department has called on Iran to lift the exit ban so Hekmati can return to the U.S., and urged the immediate release of Iranian American journalist Reza Valizadeh and other Americans it says are unjustly held in Iran.

Valizadeh's lawyer, Ryan Fayhee, declined to comment, citing the risks his client could face behind bars. The journalist, imprisoned since 2024, has sent voice messages describing conditions inside Evin, a facility that holds many of the Islamic Republic's political prisoners. In an August recording, he said prison officials had blocked family visits for five months and that medical care was "almost non-existent" beyond basic medications, with diseases such as pulmonary and gastrointestinal tuberculosis resurfacing. He also said Hekmati had been granted a medical furlough for cancer treatment before his release but was ordered back to prison after about a month instead of being allowed to begin chemotherapy.

Valizadeh, like Hekmati, has been designated wrongfully detained by the U.S. government. He was arrested after returning to Iran to visit his elderly parents and charged with collaborating with Washington. He obtained U.S. citizenship in 2022 while working in Washington for Radio Farda, the Persian-language service of U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe. He is among at least nine journalists currently jailed in Iran, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.