Iran took another confrontational step against the U.S. this week by sentencing a permanent U.S. resident to 10 years in prison and a $4.2 million fine, just weeks after Republicans warned that the Obama administration’s cash payment to Iran was seen as a ransom payment that would encourage Iran to hold more people with ties to the U.S.
Nearly a year after his detention in Iran by the hardline Revolutionary Guard, an Iranian judge this week sentenced Nizar Zakka, a 49-year-old Lebanese citizen and permanent U.S. resident.
Zakka, who had lived in the Washington, D.C. with his family for years and holds legal permanent resident status in the U.S., is a businessman and telecommunications expert who advocates for Internet freedom.
The judge found Zakka guilty of spying and “collaborating with hostile governments,” which he denies.
Judge Abolghassem Salavati, who convicted Zakka, is known for his tough sentences, including the punishment he handed down to Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian. Salavati issued Zakka’s sentence Tuesday, the same day Iranian officials were in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.
Top Obama administration officials this week said Obama and Vice President Joe Biden had no plans to meet with Iranian officials during their time in New York.
A State Department official contacted by the Washington Examiner called for Zakka’s release “as soon as possible,” but wouldn’t say if any U.S. officials pressed Iranian officials for Zakka’s safe return during the U.N. meetings this week.
“We’re obviously concerned about the reports in this particular case, but I’m not going to detail any diplomatic actions we may have taken,” a State Department official told the Examiner Wednesday, referring to reports that Zakka was sentenced to 10 years in prison “unjustly.”
“As we’ve said before, [Secretary Kerry] raises the cases of detained and missing U.S. citizens anytime he meet with Iranian officials. Beyond that, we’re not going to get into the specifics of the conversations,” the official said.
The action against Zakka, a businessman and information technology expert who has worked on contracts for the State Department, is just the latest in a crackdown in Iran against those with foreign ties and links to the United States and other western countries. Iran issued indictments in July against four people with strong ties to the U.S., including Zakka.
The three others indicted in July were Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman; Homa Hoodfar, an Iranian-Canadian and retired professor from Montreal’s Concordia University; and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an Iranian-British woman who works for Thomson Reuters Foundation, the news outlet’s charitable arm.
Zakka’s nonprofit group, the Arab ICT Organization or IJMA3, is an industry consortium from 13 countries that presses for better access to information technology throughout the Middle East.
Jason Poblete, Zakka’s D.C.-based attorney, urged the State Department and other U.S. officials to do more to secure Zakka’s unconditional release.
Poblete argued that the Obama administration’s cash payments to Iran this year to resolve other parts of the nuclear deal have only encouraged Iran to indefinitely detain more foreigners with U.S. ties. Poblete is particularly worried about a U.S. payment of $400 million that occurred the same day Iran released four U.S. hostages in January.
The Obama administration has insisted that the payment is not ransom, but GOP lawmakers have argued otherwise and are pushing legislation to prevent any cash payments to Iran in the future.
“This is but another example of the Iranian regime’s targeting of Americas to extract concessions from the U.S.,” Poblete said in a statement. “As Nizar has bravely maintained throughout his unlawful detention, he is innocent and being used as a political pawn. We reject these sham proceedings and this verdict.”
Amnesty International has issued two urgent action notices about Zakka’s plight in recent months, the latest came Sept. 16 ahead of his sentencing.
Zakka, according to the human rights group, is suffering from several health conditions, including back pain, but Iranian authorities have refused to provide him with medical care, including his medication and examinations for other health conditions. The group also argues that the Iranian government conducted a secret trial and for more than half a year held him in solitary confinement without granting him access to his lawyer or family while failing to outline the charges against him.
When they finally did charge him with “collaborating with hostile governments,” the “material facts” underlying the accusation remained unclear, according to the Amnesty International urgent action alert.
Zakka’s supporters question whether the State Department is pressing his case hard enough with Iranian officials. State’s assistance is particularly relevant given that Zakka was reportedly working on a U.S. government grant when he visited Iran and was apprehended. He also had received at least $730,000 worth of contracts and grants since 2009 from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to the Associated Press.
Zakka was arrested in Iran last September after traveling there to attend an International Conference and Exhibition on Women in Sustainable Development, at the invitation of an Iranian official to serve as one of the events speakers, according to Amnesty International.
The White House issued an executive order In June 2015 aimed at enhancing U.S. hostage recovery efforts in the wake of Islamic State slayings and complaints from American families that the administration wasn’t doing enough to rescue the hostages before they were killed.
The order established a hostage recovery fusion cell within the FBI and outlined how the agency would coordinate with other government departments to ensure that “all relevant information, expertise and resources are brought to bear to secure the safe recovery of U.S. nationals held hostage abroad.”
The order specifically included all lawful permanent residents with significant ties to the United States as part of the definition of “U.S. national.”
