{"id":10710,"date":"2026-07-19T17:11:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T12:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=10710"},"modified":"2026-07-19T17:11:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T12:11:33","slug":"u-s-citizen-who-was-trapped-in-iran-for-a-year-is-back-home-her-lawyer-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=10710","title":{"rendered":"U.S. citizen who was trapped in Iran for a year is back home, her lawyer says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>A U.S.-Iran dual citizen who was trapped in Iran on allegations of espionage and collaborating with a hostile state has departed the country earlier this week and is now back in the United States, according to her lawyer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The woman, Dena Karari, had been unable to leave Iran since December 2024 due to &#8220;bogus charges,&#8221; her attorney, Jared Genser, wrote on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jaredgenser\/status\/2077530350448673013?s=46&amp;t=RkhQ-tCxPFjjpn4glN9vPw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social media<\/a>\u00a0earlier this week. Genser announced late Wednesday that Karari is now free, writing that she is &#8220;safe and traveling back to the United States.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday morning, Genser <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JaredGenser\/status\/2078661844974391350\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">posted<\/a> that Kenari was back in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;THANK YOU to all who made this day possible, known and unknown,&#8221; he wrote. His post included a photo of Kenari at an airport, draped in an American flag.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-twitter-tweet embed--float-none embed--size-medium lazyload\" data-require=\"third-party\/twitter-widgets\">\n<div class=\"embed__content-wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Welcome home <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/DenaKarari?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"noopener\">#DenaKarari<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/Iran?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"noopener\">#Iran<\/a> to the land of the free and the home of the brave \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\u00a0\u2014 after 566 days wrongly detained by the Iranian regime. THANK YOU to all who made this day possible, known and unknown. We must now redouble our efforts to get all the other Americans out! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/g0huxfhZN3\" rel=\"noopener\">pic.twitter.com\/g0huxfhZN3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jared Genser (@JaredGenser) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JaredGenser\/status\/2078661844974391350?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"noopener\">July 19, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Karari was under an exit ban, which means that Iranian authorities refused to let her leave the country, but did not have her imprisoned.<\/p>\n<p>She was never formally charged by Iran. Although her coercive exit ban expired in April, Iran did not allow her to exit at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She suffered a heart attack on July 8, two sources told CBS News.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Two sources said Karari&#8217;s name was on a list of Americans that the U.S. State Department had given to U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff \u2014 who is helping to lead U.S.-Iran diplomacy \u2014 to press for her release.<\/p>\n<p>President Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/116926450735170990\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a> on Truth Social earlier Wednesday that Iran had released a U.S. citizen, but he did not identify the person.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She is now safely outside of Iran, and in good condition,&#8221; Mr. Trump said. &#8220;The United States of America appreciates this gesture of Goodwill by Iran.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The State Department declined to comment on the situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Several Americans\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/iran-evin-prison-journalist-reza-valizadeh-pleads-for-medical-help\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">are imprisoned<\/a>\u00a0in Iran, two of whom have been legally designated as wrongfully detained: Kamran Hekmati and Reza Valizadeh. The State Department can label U.S. nationals as &#8220;wrongfully detained&#8221; based on multiple criteria, including credible evidence of their innocence or reports that they are being held to extract concessions from the U.S. government.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, CBS News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/iran-evin-prison-journalist-reza-valizadeh-pleads-for-medical-help\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">obtained a recording<\/a> of Valizadeh, an Iranian American journalist, pleading for his release from inside Tehran&#8217;s notorious Evin Prison. <\/p>\n<p>The release of detained Americans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/live-updates\/iran-war-us-trump-peace-deal-agreed-israel\/#post-update-50909f2e\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">was not part<\/a> of the memorandum of understanding signed by the U.S. and Iran last month, which extended the two countries&#8217; ceasefire for 60 days. Fighting between the two sides has\u00a0<span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/live-updates\/iran-us-war-trump-strait-of-hormuz-persian-gulf-strikes\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">resumed<\/a><\/span>\u00a0over the last week.<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"chartbeat\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  component--type-recirculation-collection\">\n<div class=\"component__item-recirc-block\">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">Go deeper with The Free Press<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A U.S.-Iran dual citizen who was trapped in Iran on allegations of espionage and collaborating with a hostile state has departed the country earlier this week and is now back in the United States, according to her lawyer.\u00a0 The woman, Dena Karari, had been unable to leave Iran since December 2024 due to &#8220;bogus charges,&#8221;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/07\/19\/9e19aed0-8ec4-4e55-bbf4-c9f2ee6bdcfb\/thumbnail\/1200x630\/0a5adfbe81effdedce9766150a650f9a\/screenshot-2026-07-19-at-7-14-42-am.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}