Shahab Dalili, a US permanent resident jailed in Iran for nearly a decade after traveling there for his father’s funeral, has returned to Washington following his release from Tehran’s Evin prison, Hostage Aid Worldwide said on Monday.
“After a long journey from Evin to Yerevan to DC, we joyfully announce that Shahab Dalili is finally home safe with his family after a decade+ of wrongful detention in Iran,” the advocacy group wrote on X, adding that his relatives now hope he can “reintegrate smoothly into normal life.”
Dalili, a former captain with Iran’s state shipping company who later settled in the United States with his wife and two sons, traveled to Tehran in 2016 to attend his father’s funeral. He was arrested before reaching the airport for his return flight to Virginia.
Iranian authorities later sentenced him to 10 years in prison on charges including espionage and cooperation with what Iranian courts described as a hostile government, referring to the United States.
Dalili’s case drew attention during a 2023 prisoner exchange between Iran and the United States that secured the release of five detained Americans. His family publicly questioned why he had been excluded from the agreement despite years of appeals to successive US administrations.
His son Darian Dalili said at the time that the family received little information from Washington beyond assurances that officials were monitoring the case. The US government also never formally designated Dalili as “wrongfully detained,” a status that can increase diplomatic pressure for a prisoner’s release.
Hostage Aid Worldwide did not specify the terms of Dalili’s release or whether it was linked to negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
