Author of the article:
The Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An 85-year-old Iranian-American held by Iran left the country Wednesday for Oman, state media reported.
The state-run IRNA news agency published video of Baquer Namazi boarding a Royal Oman air force jet, apparently in Tehran.
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It said Namazi left the country Wednesday.
Tehran said late Tuesday that Oman had thanked the Iranian government for “delivering” Namazi to Muscat. Oman and the U.S. did not immediately acknowledge the flight.
Namazi, a former UNICEF official, was placed under house arrest for medical reasons in 2018 but prevented from leaving Iran despite his family’s pleas that he travel to receive emergency heart surgery after suffering multiple hospitalizations.
Last October, he underwent surgery in Iran to clear a blockage in an artery to the brain that his family and supporters described as life-threatening.
Namazi was arrested when he traveled to Tehran to visit his incarcerated son Siamak Namazi, a 49-year-old energy executive. Security forces had arrested the son, an advocate of closer ties between Iran and the West, months earlier while he visiting Iran on a business trip.
Both Namazis were sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran on what the U.S. and U.N. say were trumped-up spying charges.
