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State Department says second American 'wrongfully detained' by Iran

Kamran Hekmati is serving a two-year prison sentence for visiting Israel more than a decade ago.

Elizabeth Hagedorn

Mar 16, 2026

WASHINGTON — The State Department has officially determined that a second US citizen is being “wrongfully detained” in Iran, his family said, as the war engulfs the Middle East for a third week. 

Kamran Hekmati, a 61-year-old Jewish resident of New York, traveled to Iran in May to visit his relatives. When he tried to leave through Tehran’s airport, authorities confiscated his passport and arrested him two months later.

The dual Iranian-American citizen was sentenced to two years in prison for having traveled to Israel 13 years before to attend his son’s bar mitzvah. He was charged under an Iranian law that criminalizes Iranian citizens for visiting Israel........

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