Iran reveals names of 5 citizens sought in US prisoner swap

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

49% : Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, a Boston-based political scientist and author, was charged in January 2021 with violating the law that requires individuals acting as foreign agents in the United States to register with the US government.
47% : On Monday, the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York provided Al-Monitor with a list of Iranians imprisoned or facing trial in the United States that Tehran is seeking as part of the exchange.
47% : According to court documents, Afrasiabi was secretly paid by Iran's mission to the United Nations since at least 2007, during which time prosecutors said he lobbied a US congressman and the State Department.
46% : The pending release of the prisoners, which is seen as part of a broader effort to de-escalate tensions with Iran, was conducted through third parties including Oman, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Qatar.
45% : A mutual release of prisoners held by the United States and Iran is expected once more than $6 billion in Iranian funds are wired from South Korea, where they were frozen under US sanctions, to an account in Qatar.
39% : As part of the agreement, Iran last month moved the US citizens held in Evin Prison to house arrest.
39% : The detainees sought by Washington include dual nationals Morad Tahbaz, Siamak Namazi and Emad Shargi, each of whom have been held in Iran on spying charges the United States says are bogus.
39% : Over the past two years, the list of names Iran sought as part of the prisoner swap evolved after some of the individuals held on sanctions violations served out their sentences.
37% : Not included in the planned prisoner swap are US permanent residents Shahab Dalili and Jamshid Sharmahd, who despite their cases' similarities to Tabhaz's, Namazi's and Shargi's, are not considered "wrongfully detained" in Iran by the State Department.
36% : Mehrdad Ansari, a resident of the United Arab Emirates and Germany, was sentenced in 2021 to roughly five years in prison for his alleged role in a scheme to obtain sensitive dual-use items for Iran in violation of the Iranian Trade Embargo.
36% : Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani, an Iranian national residing in Montreal, was charged in July 2021 with illegally exporting laboratory equipment to Iran.
35% : Federal prosecutors accused Hasanzadeh, an engineer, of stealing confidential information from his employer and sending it to his brother in Iran, who had ties to the military.
35% : His son Siamak Namazi was the only American not returned home as part of a swap characterized by former President Barack Obama as "a one-time gesture to Iran."
33% : "They include dual US-Iranian citizen Kambiz Attar Kashani, who in February was sentenced to 30 months in prison for allegedly sending electronic equipment and technology to the Iranian government, including the Central Bank of Iran, using front companies in the United Arab Emirates.
26% : As part of its indirect talks with Iran, the Biden administration had also sought the release of Baquer Namazi, a US citizen held in Iran for more than six years in prison and then under house arrest.
18% : WASHINGTON -- Of the prisoners Iran is seeking in an exchange with the United States, four were charged with sanctions violations and a fifth with acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Iran, according to a list of names provided to Al-Monitor by the country's mission to the United Nations.

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