Freed Iranian prisoner to return to Connecticut later this week: Himes

Morad Tahbaz, a Weston resident freed from Iran as part of a prisoner swap negotiated by the Biden Administration, will likely be back in Connecticut later this week, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes said Monday.

Tahbaz and four other prisoners released in the swap arrived Monday in Doha, Qatar and will next fly to Washington D.C., Himes said. After several days there for debriefing, Tahbaz will then return to Connecticut.

“Until they were on the ground in Doha, I wasn’t allowing myself to feel any relief,” said Himes, who represents Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District, which includes Weston. “But the family is just overjoyed . ... It’s hard to describe the elation of the family right now.”

Tahbaz had been incarcerated in Iran since 2018 on allegations that he was spying on the Iranian government. As part of the deal to free him and four others, the Biden Administration agreed to release five Iranian citizens held in the U.S. and un-freeze about $6 billion in Iranian assets that had been held in South Korea.

“Today, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home,” President Joe Biden said in a statement released as the plane carrying the group from Tehran landed in Doha.

After the plane slowed to a stop, three of the prisoners walked down the ramp and were greeted by the U.S. ambassador to Qatar, Timmy Davis. The former prisoners hugged the ambassador and others.

Tahbaz and two others then wrapped their arms around their shoulders and walked off to a building in the airport.

Tahbaz, a British-American dual citizen of Iranian descent, lived with his family in Weston before his arrest in Iran five years ago, while serving as CEO of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, an Iranian conservation group he co-founded.

While the Iranian government has accused Tahbaz of spying, sentencing him to 10 years in prison, his family maintains he was in Iran for a conservation project, and the United States government has classified him as wrongfully detained. Himes said Monday that Tahbaz was definitively not a spy.

“I’m the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, so I can say with great authority that Morad was not a U.S. intelligence asset,” Himes said.

Tahbaz was nearly released last year in a prisoner swap negotiated by the British government but was ultimately left out of that deal and forced to remain in Iran.

Himes said he was closely involved in efforts to bring home Tahbaz, lobbying both the Trump and Biden Administrations on his behalf and directly meeting on several occasions with Iranian officials.

Connecticut’s two U.S. Senators, Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, have also pushed for Tahbaz’s release and celebrated the deal negotiated by the Biden Administration.

“I am relieved that Morad Tahbaz is now free after many long years of unspeakably cruel, inexcusable imprisonment,” Blumenthal tweeted Monday. “Morad’s release is a testament to the courage & strength of his family & supporters, who never surrendered fighting for his freedom.”

In a statement Monday, Murphy said he was “relieved beyond measure” that Tahbaz and his fellow prisoners were headed home.

“After almost six years of brutal imprisonment, Morad and his wife Vida will finally be reunited with their family and I wish them every happiness,” he said.

Efforts to reach Tahbaz’s family Monday were not successful.