American in Iran ends hunger strike, mother claims

An American businessman who has been held prisoner in Iran since October has ended his hunger strike of indeterminate length, his mother wrote in a Facebook post on Monday.

Siamak Namazi called his mother, Effie Namazi, earlier in the day and told her that “his hunger strike is broken,” she wrote. 

{mosads}”We thank God and we also count the seconds to when we can see Siamak and embrace him, and more importantly, for our innocent son to be freed,” she added, according to a translation from Reuters. 

It’s unclear how long Namazi had been refusing to eat, though rumors circulated that the strike had lasted for days. His mother wrote in a separate post over the weekend that she was aware of the hunger strike.

Namazi, an Iranian-American who was previously living in Dubai, was arrested in October. 

He was not included in Iran’s release of four American prisoners earlier this year, shortly before implementation of the landmark nuclear accord lifting sanctions on its financial and energy sector. In exchange for the release of those Americans, the U.S. lifted charges or abandoned sanctions-related cases against one Iranian and six Iranian-Americans. 

In the Facebook post over the weekend, Effie Namazi wrote that she had been unable to see her son, and that he had not been given access to a lawyer.