Ali Rezaian, brother of imprisoned Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, pauses as he talks about the recent announcement of a verdict in his brother's case by Iran's judiciary during a television interview with Reuters in Washington October 13, 2015.
An Iranian American named of Siamak Namazi joins three other Iranian Americans currently jailed in Iran.
Namazi is the head of strategic planning at Crescent Petroleum Co. He was taken away by Iranian security forces two weeks ago while visiting relatives in Tehran.
“He’s quite well-known in business circles and has been an advocate for better economic relations between Iran and the West,” says Farnaz Fassihi, reporter for the Wall Street Journal.
Fassihi says agents from the Revolutionary Guards raided his house in Tehran, confiscated his laptop and belongings and took him to Evin Prison, where most of political dissidents are jailed.
The Iranian government has not officially acknowledged his arrest and it’s not clear what the allegations and charges against him are.
Fassihi suspects Namazi’s arrest stems from the internal struggle between the more moderate government of President Hassan Rouhani and the hardline factions. The sides have been at odds more recently after the government negotiated an historic nuclear deal between Iran and the West.
“The hardliners oppose any sort of opening of Iran to the outside world,” Fassihi says.
Fassihi adds that although the nuclear deal between Iran and the US was approved by the Supreme Leader, who is the ultimate decider on major issues in Iran, that doesn’t mean he and his supporters are interested in normalizing relations with the US.
“They’re not in favor of opening up Iran’s market to the outside investors,” she says.
Particularly, Fassihi says, they’re very wary of American influence.
“They think that by opening up Iran economically, they might not be able to control the social changes that that will bring," she says.
There are other Iranian Americans currently held in Iran, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian. Reports show another businessman, a 76-year-old British Iranian, has also been held in a Tehran prison for more than four years.
Kamal Foroughi worked as a business consultant for the Malaysian national oil and gas company, Petronas. He was arrested in May 2011 in Tehran and in 2013 was sentenced to seven years in jail for espionage and an extra year for possession of alcohol. Consuming alcohol in Iran is a crime.
His son, Kamran Foroughi, says his family was told his father would be released if they kept quiet about his arrest. The family worried that they would be denied phone calls to Foroughi if they talked about his case in the media.
But recently they decided to open up about his case since they are worried about his health conditions. "[There's] still no urgency from Iran about giving him a full medical checkup and tests in hospital," Kamran Foroughi says. "[There's] no sign of any change at all."
These arrests have made other dual citizens hoping to do business in Iran worried.
"It's already sent chills through the business community, both inside and outside of Iran," says Fassihi.
She spoke with businessmen inside Iran who told her they have been put under surveillance, interrogated and told to stay away from foreign investors.
One businessman told Fassihi he is considering giving up doing business in Iran all together.
"He told me, 'If Iran doesn't want our expertise, our money and our network, we can take our business elsewhere,'" Fassihi says.