American Ex-Prisoners Leave Iran

Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post's Tehran Bureau Chief, is one of the Americans freed on Jan. 16, 2016, by Iran as part of a prisoner swap. Rezaian was arrested in 2014 on espionage charges and spent over 500 days Iran's Evin Prison.

A plane carrying at least three of four Americans freed by Iran as part of a prisoner swap with the United States has taken off from Tehran.

Among those en route to Switzerland are Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini. The men will then head to a U.S. military hospital in Germany for medical treatment.

Rezaian is accompanied by his wife, journalist Yeganeh Salehi, and his mother.

The release of four American prisoners was announced Saturday, just hours before Iranian and Western diplomats in Vienna announced implementation of a nuclear pact between Western powers and Iran.

Citing an unnamed U.S. official, Reuters reports that a fourth released American, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, is not on the plane that left Tehran. An earlier State Department statement said "those who wished to depart Iran have left."

A fifth American, language student Matthew Trevithick, was released separately on Saturday after being detained since late 2015. A senior U.S. official said he has already left Iran, according to the Washington Post.

Rezaian, an Iranian-American who served as the Post's Tehran bureau chief, was arrested in 2014 on espionage charges and spent over 500 days in jail, despite pleas and protests by the U.S. government, the Post, family and friends. He was convicted on the espionage charges in a secret trial last year, but his sentence had never been disclosed.

Publisher Frederick Ryan released a statement saying the newspaper is "relieved that this 545-day nightmare for Jason and his family is finally over."

The other three ex-detainees are: Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, an Iranian-American and former U.S. Marine arrested in 2011 on spying charges while visiting his grandmother; Saeed Abedini, a Christian pastor imprisoned since 2012; and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, whose name had not been made public until Saturday.

In this video frame grab image made from the Iranian broadcaster IRIB TV, U.S. citizen Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, accused by Iran of spying for the CIA, sits in Tehran's revolutionary court, in Iran, Dec. 27, 2011.

The fifth American released, student Matthew Trevithick, had been detained for 40 days while in Iran for an intensive language program to increase his fluency in Dari, a language closely related to Farsi. Trevithick's release was separate from the those of the other four Americans.

Seven Iranians released

On the other side, U.S. President Barack Obama offered clemency to seven Iranians who have either been charged or convicted for violating U.S. trade sanctions against Iran. Three of them, Bahram Mechanic, Tooraj Faridi and Khosrow Afghani, are accused of exporting electronics to Iran. Nader Modanlo was convicted in 2012 for helping Iran to place its first-ever satellite into orbit in 2005.

Khosrow Afghani makes his way to a waiting car at Federal Detention Center Houston in Houston, Texas, Jan. 17, 2016.

Two other men, Arash Ghahreman and Ali Saboonchi, were each convicted in separate cases, while Nima Golestaneh pleaded guilty last month in connection with the hacking of a Vermont-based software company in 2012.

The Obama administration also agreed to drop charges against 14 other Iranians outside the country. None of them are in U.S. custody, and officials have determined that efforts to have them extradited will not succeed.

Robert Levinson As part of the prisoner release, Iran agreed to try to determine the fate of Robert Levinson, a former U.S. agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who disappeared there in 2007 while working on a project that has been linked to the CIA.

U.S. officials have said they are unsure he is still alive, but said that Iran has "committed to continue cooperating with the United States to determine the whereabouts of Levinson."

This undated handout photo provided by the family of Robert Levinson, shows retired-FBI agent Robert Levinson. Levinson, 64, went missing on the Iranian island of Kish in March 2007.

The lengthy and complex negotiations with Iran about its nuclear program climaxed in an agreement announced last July, but there was no mention of the prisoners issue at the time. Obama and other senior U.S. officials have said they repeatedly demanded the release of Iran's American prisoners, but there had been, nevertheless, widespread criticism of the administration for failing to secure a firm agreement on the prisoners' release earlier.

Some material for this report came from Reuters.

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