'I just don't understand why he is not allowed to leave": Family implores Iran to let Baquer Namazi leave for surgery
The 84 year old Iranian American former UNICEF official urgently requires surgery to head off imminent stroke, his son said.
The family of 84 year old Iranian American Baquer Namazi is imploring Iranian authorities to allow him to leave Iran to get emergency surgery for a blocked artery.
Iran commuted the sentence against Namazi, a former UNICEF official, more than a year ago, but he has been unable to get an Iranian passport to permit him to travel abroad for medical care, his son Babak Namazi and an attorney for the family, Jared Genser, told journalists today.
The family received medical information in recent days that Baquer Namazi has a 95-97% blockage of a major artery to his brain and requires emergency surgery to prevent a stroke. They want him to have that surgery abroad, with his family by his side.
“My father has already lost so much precious time,” Babak Namazi told journalists on a call today. “I am begging Iran to let him spend whatever small amount of time he has left with his family.”
Babak Namazi asked that his brother Siamak Namazi, who has been detained at Evin prison for six years, also be permitted to leave so that his family can stay united.
“My brother’s detention hangs heavily on my father at all times,” Babak Namazi said. Siamak Namazi will turn 50 this month, a friend said.
US Iran envoy Rob Malley called on Iran today to allow Baquer Namazi to leave for medical care with his family.
“Baquer Namazi went to Iran in 2016 to help secure the release of his wrongfully detained son Siamak,” Malley wrote on Twitter. “He has since been barred from leaving Iran. He is in urgent need of medical care. We call on Iran to allow him to travel and recover from surgery with his family by his side.
Attorney Genser said he hopes and prays that the government of Iran relents and shows “for a moment a humanitarian impulse, and allows Baquer to leave” so he can have surgery under safe circumstances, and the Namazi family tragedy can end.
The Namazis are among at least 16 dual nationals and one foreign national known to be imprisoned in Iran, though the actual number is believed to be higher, the Iran Human Rights Organization said.
Talks on a US-Iran, and UK-Iran prisoner swap that had been conducted parallel to the Iran nuclear talks in Vienna were apparently interrupted when nuclear talks broke off in June for the Iranian elections. Iran has accused the US of scuttling an imminent deal for a swap over the summer, charges the US fiercely rejected.
A distraught Babak Namazi said today he has left no stone un-turned in his efforts to get his father released, “I just don’t have any stones left.”
His father was released from Evin prison, and his sentence was deemed completed almost a year and a half ago, Babak Namazi said. Iranian authorities then indicated his father was free to leave. They made “this poor old man go from passport office to passport office,” but Baquer Namazi was unable to get a passport to leave, he said.
“I just never imagined that cruelty could so systematically and for such a long time continue,” Babak Namazi said. “I just don’t understand why he is not allowed to leave.”