After Prisoner Swap, Anxiety Over Jailed Iranian-American Businessman

The U.S. and Iran swapped prisoners last month, before the lifting of sanctions. But Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman, remains in an Iranian jail, raising concerns among the diaspora.

Iran has eagerly opened its doors to foreign investment now that a nuclear deal has cleared the way. So why is Iran still holding prisoner an Iranian-American businessman?

This is one of the contradictions of the moment in Iran, where economic sanctions were lifted weeks ago.

During seven days in the country, producer Emily Ochsenschlager and I found ourselves sitting next to British and German businessmen at hotel breakfast buffets. We met a builder eager for foreign investment to finish the largest hotel in Iran. We met an economist, close to Iran's government, who wants Iran to join the World Trade Organization.

We stepped into a shopping mall and saw TVs showing news programming from the U.S. network Bloomberg Television; nobody seemed to care that the anchor was dressed in Western style with her hair uncovered. We even met an Iranian business consultant who was wearing a necktie — an accessory long ago rejected in the Islamic Republic as a symbol of Western decadence.

But we never heard a word about Siamak Namazi, the Iranian-American held in Evin Prison on the edge of Tehran.

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