71-Year-Old Long Island Jeweler Freed from Iran Prison but Still Barred from Leaving

Kamran Hekmati, a Jewish Iranian-American jeweler who runs a business in Manhattan’s Diamond District, was freed from Iran’s Evin Prison after more than a year of incarceration. He had been arrested in May 2025 and sentenced by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court for an alleged 2012 trip to Israel, a charge later reduced to two years. The US State Department welcomed his release but noted that Iranian officials still prohibit him from leaving the country.

Representative Tom Suozzi called the development a “wonderful first step” and pressed for the removal of the travel ban. Human-rights groups, including Amnesty International, described Evin Prison as a site of severe abuse, and fellow detainee Reza Valizadeh has documented ongoing physical and psychological torture of imprisoned Americans.