Iran has released an American woman who was wrongfully detained in the country for over a year. The woman, Dena Karari, is an Iranian-American citizen who was accused of espionage over her work with an American nonprofit helping impoverished children.

Background

According to her attorney, Jared Genser, Karari was targeted after Iranian authorities linked her to the Children of Mehr Foundation, a U.S.-registered nonprofit that provides humanitarian assistance to impoverished children in rural Iran.

Under the Iranian regime, affiliations with U.S.-based organizations operating inside Iran are often viewed with heightened suspicion and can lead to accusations of security-related offenses. Genser clarified that Karari was never formally imprisoned but was effectively held in Iran through a coercive exit ban.

She was reportedly interrogated dozens of times by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and suffered enormous physical and psychological hardship. Genser released a statement shortly after Trump’s announcement, saying she had been trapped in Iran on bogus charges of collaboration with a hostile state and espionage but is now on her way back to the United States.

Reaction

President Donald Trump thanked Iran for what he described as a gesture of goodwill. The U.S. State Department has previously stated that the Iranian regime has a long history of unjustly and wrongfully detaining other countries’ citizens as hostages for use as political leverage.

Iran has frequently targeted individuals who hold both American and Iranian citizenship, as Tehran does not recognize dual nationality and often treats dual citizens solely as Iranian nationals, limiting their access to U.S. consular assistance.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.