Three of the five U.S. citizens released from Iranian custody Saturday boarded a plane home to the U.S. Sunday morning.
Family members of three of the four Americans that were freed as part of the prisoner swap said the men were U.S.-bound, but the White House was not aware of the situation of one former prisoner, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari.
The fifth hostage release, student Matthew Trevithick, was reported as also having left Iran. Trevithick was not part of the swap.
“We can confirm that our detained U.S. citizens have been released and that those who wished to depart Iran have left. We have no further information to share at this time and would ask everyone respect the privacy of these individuals and their families,” the State Department said a statement.
But the release of five Iranian-Americans prompted questions about two others, Siamak Namazi and Robert Levinson, who were not freed as part of the deal. U.S. officials said in a statement Saturday they would continue to work for the release of both, but said it was an ominous sign that Levinson was not released with the others.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the first presidential candidate to mention Levinson in a tweet about the other recovered captives.
Relieved that American prisoners are coming home from Iran. We must keep working for the return of Robert Levinson. -H
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 16, 2016
Overnight Twitter users launched the hashtag campaign #WhatAboutBob for Levinson. It quickly trended nationally.
The Iranian government has never acknowledged having Levinson, who visited the country in 2007 as a private investigator for the CIA on a project to gather information about government corruption. In 2013, he released a video from prison stating he was not in good health, but it was the last his family has heard from him.
