Iranian-American dual citizen Siamack Namazi who has been detained without furlough since September 2015 after a trip to Iran, wrote a letter to President Rouhani’s Vice President for Science and Technology Sourena Sattari, asking him to tell the truth about the reason behind his travel to Iran so he could get released from prison, “not for the sake of humanity” but to “ease your own conscience”.

In his letter to Sattari from Evin prison, Namazi says: “I am the same person who suffered unbelievably for the vice president’s science and technology programs. The same person who you have been silent about for half a decade...and evaded your responsibility toward him.”

Namazi mentioned his efforts to help realize the plans of the vice president’s office for science and technology since the beginning of the Rouhani administration, and tells Sattari: “If you search your conscience, you will admit that I sincerely made efforts for bringing young elites to Iran, which was one of your plans, and due to the repeated requests, I used my connections as an elite in the global economy forum to the best of my abilities without expecting any compensation.”

The letter continued: Although the plans of the science and technology office were not realized due to the opposition of the parallel security entities, in my next trip to Iran to visit my parents, I was incredibly rewarded by being barred from exiting the country, interrogation, solitary confinement, heavy prison sentence, and persecution of my family and my father.”

The Islamic Republic has a long track-record of imprisonong foreigners and dual citizens in what human rights organizations say is essentially hostage taking with the aim of having bargaining chips against the West.

Namazi without naming the security service responsible for his ordeal reminded Sattari that they made an error thinking his recruitment effort aimed to create a network "for overthrowing the regime" in coordination with the US government, and that he was the brain behind these plans.

Namazi goes on to talk about the heavy-handed response he received from the security agencies: “The investigation phase included one year of interrogation without any of my legal rights, dozens of false labels and accusations were added to my case.”

“Mr. Sattari, can you imagine what two years of solitary confinement in a security detention center does to the body and mind of a person? Today, I have been in prison for five years without any furlough, and even in medical cases that the medical examiner has approved, they refuse to take me to a clinic under custody,” the letter adds.

Namazi continued: “I expected more courage from you. You should have taken responsibility for your plans, if not for humanity, at least for the sake of easing your own conscience.”

Iranian American citizen Siamack Namazi traveled from UAE to Iran in 2015 to visit his family but he was barred from leaving the country and after a few sessions of interrogation, he was detained in September 2015. Before his arrest, he was director of the strategic planning office at Crescent Oil Company in UAE.