Hekmati was imprisoned in 2025 while visiting family in Iran because of a trip to Israel for his son’s bar mitzvah in 2012.
By Shula Rosen
The US State Department welcomed Iran’s release of American citizen Kamran Hekmati after more than a year in prison but called on Tehran to lift a travel ban preventing him from returning to the United States.
Hekmati, who lives on Long Island, N.Y., was imprisoned in 2025 while visiting family in Iran. Iranian authorities accused him of illegally traveling to Israel in 2012 to attend his son’s bar mitzvah.
“We welcome Mr. Hekmati’s release from detention and continue to call on the Iranian regime to lift the exit ban so that he may return home,” the State Department told Radio Farda, Radio Free Europe’s Persian-language outlet.
Hekmati is believed to have been released on Friday, but the 71-year-old Jewish Iranian-American remains unable to leave Iran because of the travel restriction.
“His health is OK, but we need the Iranians to go the next step and let him come home,” Suozzi told Newsday.
Hekmati runs a jewelry business in Manhattan’s Diamond District.
Iranian passport holders are prohibited from traveling to Israel, which has been locked in bitter conflict with the Islamic Republic since the 12-Day War in June 2025.
Hekmati was initially sentenced to four years in prison over his 2012 trip to Israel, although the sentence was later reduced.
He spent more than a year imprisoned at Iran’s Evin Prison. Amnesty International has documented excessive crackdowns, severe beatings and other unlawful uses of force against prisoners at the facility.
Hekmati’s supporters have questioned the legal basis for his sentence, pointing to the timing of Iran’s restrictions on travel to Israel. The law allows authorities to prosecute violations going back 10 years but was enacted only after Hekmati’s visit to Israel, Newsday reported.
Hekmati, a Persian Jew, left Iran for the United States about 14 years ago but continued to maintain close connections to his native country.
He established a jewelry business in New York City’s Diamond District and became part of Long Island’s large Persian Jewish community. Despite settling in the United States, Hekmati continued traveling back to Iran to see relatives and sometimes remained there for months at a time, his family said.
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