Iranian-American Businessman Jailed in Tehran

The following article by Nargess Tavassolian was originally published on IranWire.

Security agents have arrested an Iranian-American businessman in Tehran, IranWire has learned.

A dozen plainclothes agents raided the family home of the businessman, who was visiting Iran, this week. According to IranWire’s source, they ransacked the house, confiscated property, and took the dual national to Evin Prison.

The news coincided with reports of Iranian-Americans being hacked. Several Iranian-Americans and U.S.-based Iranian experts reported that they received suspicious emails sent from the businessman’s account. This follows similar attacks on associates of a European-based Iranian businessman who had traveled to Iran to visit family and look into possible business opportunities as Iran and the P5+1 move toward finalizing the nuclear deal approved in July.

“I’m usually very careful about the emails I open, because so many of my friends have been hacked,” said a prominent Iranian-American scholar whose account was hacked after he received a phishing email. “But I trust my friend [the arrested Iranian-American businessman], so I opened his email. And then I realized that my whole system had been hacked.”

On Monday, October 12, Iran’s judiciary passed a verdict on the case of Jason Rezaian, the jailed Washington Post correspondent, without releasing specific details about the case. News also emerged on October 15 that Kamal Fouraghi, an Iranian-Briton, has been held in Evin Prison since 2011. His family, who has until now been silent about Fouraghi’s imprisonment, decided to go public because of the 76-year-old’s failing health. Both Rezaian and Fouraghi face charges of espionage.