Iran Sentences Iranian American Jewish Man to Prison, Family Says

Kamran Hekmati of Long Island was arrested for visiting Israel 13 years ago to celebrate his son’s bar mitzvah, they said.

By Farnaz Fassihi

Iran has sentenced an Iranian American Jewish man from New York to prison on charges of traveling to Israel 13 years ago for celebrating his son’s bar mitzvah, members of his family said.

Kamran Hekmati, a 70-year-old jeweler who traveled to Iran in May for a brief visit, has been held in Tehran’s Evin prison since July, family members said in interviews. They asked not to be named because they feared that Iran’s government would retaliate against Mr. Hekmati for speaking publicly.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced Mr. Hekmati to four years in prison in late August, citing a law that bans Iranians from visiting Israel, family members said.

Mr. Hekmati, who holds dual citizenship, was born in Iran but immigrated to the United States when he was 13 years old. He traveled to Iran to visit family using his Iranian passport, as Iranians are obliged to do, and Iran says it does not recognize dual citizenship.

In September, Iran’s judiciary reduced the punishment for traveling to Israel to two years in prison and subsequently cut Mr. Hekmati’s sentence in half, members of his family said. His name and his sentence have not previously been reported.

A lawyer for the family has filed an appeal, but a court date has not yet been set, the family members said. They said they hope Iran releases him on humanitarian grounds because he was not involved in politics, had visited Israel for personal reasons and was in poor health fighting aggressive bladder cancer.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations said it would not comment on Mr. Hekmati’s case.

Iran is currently holding at least four American citizens: Mr. Hekmati, the journalist Reza Valizadeh, and two women whose identities have not been made public, according to rights groups, relatives and a lawyer representing one of the women.

The State Department, citing privacy and security concerns, said it could not comment on individual cases of Americans detained in Iran or divulge exactly how many were being held. It said in a statement that it was continuing to engage with allies and partners on “this issue and on cases of unjust detention in Iran in general.”

“The Iranian regime has a long history of unjustly and wrongfully detaining other countries’ citizens,” the State Department said in a statement. “Iran should release these individuals immediately.”

Iran’s government has a track record of detaining foreign and dual nationals and using them as political pawns for prisoner swaps and to release frozen funds. But Mr. Hekmati is the first known case in recent years in which Iran targeted a Jewish dual American citizen for traveling to Israel for personal reasons.

“By wrongfully detaining Mr. Hekmati and others like him, Tehran is once again unnecessarily fueling tensions with the United States and Israel,” said Siamak Namazi, an Iranian American and former prisoner in Iran. He was jailed for eight years and released in 2023 in a deal with the Biden administration.

Mr. Hekmati owns a jewelry business in Midtown Manhattan’s diamond district and lives in Great Neck, Long Island, home to a large population of Iranian American Jews. His family says he delights in spending time with his four children and first grandchild, is an active member of the local synagogue and has a deep love for Iranian culture.

“Kamran was the person who glued the family together. He was always there for everyone, his wife, his kids, all his relatives, anyone he met in Iran,” Shohreh Nowfar, a cousin who lives in California, said in a telephone interview. “It’s so ironic that the country he loved so much and tried to help has now imprisoned him.”

Mr. Hekmati returned to Iran on multiple occasions alone and with his wife and children, and did not encounter any problems until this past May, when tensions between Iran and Israel spiked ahead of military strikes, members of his family said.

Security forces stopped Mr. Hekmati at Tehran’s international airport as he tried to leave the country, confiscated his passport and demanded access to his mobile phone and social media accounts, members of his family said.

From May to early July, intelligence agents interrogated Mr. Hekmati several times as he remained at a relative’s home in Tehran while he was banned from leaving the country, members of his family said. In early July, shortly after a cease-fire with Israel that was brokered by the United States, security agents raided the home and arrested him, members of his family said.

He was charged and sentenced in late August without being allowed legal representation, they said. The family members added that they hired a lawyer after he was sentenced.

Iranian leaders, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, have long encouraged Iranians in the diaspora, including those from religious and ethnic minority groups, to visit without fear. Mr. Pezeshkian reiterated that message in September during the United Nations General Assembly.

Farnaz Fassihi is the United Nations bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the organization. She also covers Iran and has written about conflict in the Middle East for 15 years.