US sanctions Iranian officials over Robert Levinson’s abduction

Dec 14, 2020

The United States on Monday sanctioned two Iranian intelligence officials over the kidnapping of Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who vanished 13 years ago in Iran and is believed to have died in regime custody. 

Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security officials Mohammad Baseri and Ahmad Khazai were blacklisted for their alleged involvement in the abduction, detention and probable death of Levinson, the longest-held hostage in American history.

“Iranian leaders have lied over and over again about what happened to Mr. Levinson, and that continues to this day,” a senior government official said on a call with reporters Monday. “The US will no longer accept Iranian excuses for what they know they have done to Mr. Levinson.”

Levinson disappeared on Iran’s remote Kish Island in March 2007 during an unauthorized CIA mission that the US government for years claimed was a private business trip. He hasn’t been seen or heard from publicly since then, and the Iranian government denied holding the veteran agent in its custody. 

But in 2010 and 2011, unknown captors sent the family proof-of-life videos and photos, showing a haggard Levinson wearing a Guantanamo Bay-like orange jumpsuit and pleading for help. Last year, the US State Department offered a reward of up to $20 million, in addition to the $5 million already offered by the FBI, for information on the whereabouts of the father of seven.

In March, the Levinson family announced in a statement that the US government believed Levinson had died sometime before the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. His remains have not been recovered. 

A senior government official said Monday that all available evidence points to Levinson’s likely death in Iranian custody. The investigation is ongoing, the official added, and the administration is hopeful that the naming of Baseri and Khazai will encourage others to come forward with information. 

“We’re hoping today’s designation puts the responsibility squarely on the Iranian regime for the first time, and these two senior officers,” a senior government official said Monday. “We hope this gives Bob’s family some of the answers they deserve.”

The US government is also pressing Iran to release a number of Americans held on political grounds. Dual-citizens Morad Tahbaz and Siamak and Baquer Namazi are currently detained in the country on charges widely dismissed as baseless. 

Iran drew international condemnation over the weekend for hanging Rouhollah Zam, a dissident Iranian journalist convicted of “corruption on earth.” On Sunday, an Iranian court convicted British-Iranian anthropologist Kameel Ahmady of “collaborating with a hostile government” and sentenced him to nine years in prison.