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Kamal Foroughi - Wikipedia

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Kamal Foroughi
Born	Kamal Foroughi (1939-09-03) September 3, 1939 (age 85) Iran
Citizenship	United Kingdom, Iran
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	Imprisonment in Iran

Kamal Foroughi (Persian: کمال فروغی) 3 September 1939 - 3 June 2024^[1] is a British-Iranian businessman who was imprisoned in Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran. He is the oldest hostage of all time ever recorded in the world’s hostage history. Iranian authorities arrested him in May 2011 while he was 72 year old and living in Tehran as a consultant for the Malaysian national oil and gas company Petronas. In 2013, he was sentenced to eight years in prison, seven for espionage and an additional year for possessing alcohol in his home.

Bio

Foroughi moved to Britain from Iran in the 1970s.^[2] He has two children.^[3]

Arrest and imprisonment in Iran

On 14 October 2015, The Guardian reported for the first time that Foroughi, a "76-year-old British national has been held in an Iranian jail for more than four years and convicted of spying." His family chose to publicly speak out years after his arrest in order to "draw attention to the plight of a man they describe as one of the 'oldest and loneliest prisoners in Iran.'"^[3]

Iranian plain clothes authorities arrested Foroughi on 5 May 2011. They "apparently did not show an arrest warrant or explain to him the reasons for arrest."^[4] At the time, he was working in Tehran as a consultant for the Malaysian national oil and gas company Petronas.^[3] They jailed him in Evin Prison, "where he was held in solitary confinement for periods of time, without access to a lawyer or his family."^[4] In 2013, Foroughi was sentenced to eight years in prison, seven for espionage and an additional year for possessing alcohol in his home. His son Kamran said, "My dad’s detention has been a total nightmare for all the family… We are not aware of any evidence that justifies the espionage charge."^[3]

Calls for release

On 11 December 2015, The Daily Telegraph and The Independent reported that UK Prime Minister David Cameron had personally written to the President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, requesting the release of Foroughi. During a visit to Tehran in August 2015, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond also raised the case of Foroughi with Rouhani.^[2]^[5]

Release from prison

He was released from detention in late 2018 but was unable to return to his family in Britain as he waited for his Iranian passport to be renewed. On 1 April 2020, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement that he had returned to the United Kingdom.^[6]

References

^ "Family of British grandfather in Iran's most notorious prison remain 'hopeful' after judiciary U-turns on decision to release him". Times. 6 September 2016.
^ ^a ^b "David Cameron writes to Iran's president over British grandfather jailed for four years". The Daily Telegraph. 11 December 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Briton, 76, has been in Iranian jail for 4 years on spying charges". The Guardian. 14 October 2015.
^ ^a ^b "Urgent Action: Health of Elderly Prisoner Remains at Risk" (PDF). Amnesty International. 29 January 2016.
^ "David Cameron intervenes in case of British grandfather Kamal Foroughi 'facing death' in Iranian jail". The Independent. 11 December 2015.
^ "Iranian dual national Foroughi returns to UK, nine years after arrest". Reuters. 1 April 2020.

List of foreign nationals detained in Iran

United States

Citizens

Residents

Canada

Citizens	Maziar Bahari Hossein Derakhshan Abdolrasoul Dorri-Esfahani Hamid Ghassemi-Shall Homa Hoodfar Zahra Kazemi Ramin Jahanbegloo Kavous Seyed-Emami
Residents	Saeed Malekpour

United Kingdom

Citizens	Kameel Ahmady Anoosheh Ashoori Iason Athanasiadis Roger Cooper Abbas Edalat Kamal Foroughi Ghoncheh Ghavami Roya Saberi Negad Nobakht Nahid Taghavi Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
Residents	Aras Amiri