Freed US prisoner popped champagne on leaving Iranian air space

USA journalist Jason Rezaian gestures next to his wife Yeganeh Salehi as he poses for media people in front of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, on Wednesday.

“This is all so surreal and we’re just soaking it all in right now”, Hekmati said, adding his release had come as a surprise.

U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee says Michigan’s Amir Hekmati, who was just freed from Iran in a prisoner swap negotiated with Tehran, is in good shape and spirits, and looking forward to getting home soon.

On Tuesday, another of the freed Americans, former Marine Amir Hekmati, described the celebrations aboard the special Swiss jet that carried some of the former prisoners from Tehran.

Hekmati says he went to Iran to visit family and spend time with his ailing grandmother.

Hekmati, a 32-year-old former Marine born in the US, was incarcerated in Iran in 2011, charged with espionage while visiting relatives there.

Amir Hekmati, Rezaian’s fellow prisoner, also made an appearance yesterday, where he expressed tremendous jubilation and appreciation for his release.

At first, Hekmati said, the prisoners were told that they would be leaving in two hours, but their departure on a private plane didn’t occur until nearly two and half days later.

Rezaian, who is from the San Francisco Bay area said that “for now, I want to catch up with what’s been going on in the world, watch a Warriors game or two, and see the Star Wars movie”.

“As a war veteran who defended our nation in its time of need, I ask that you also work to defend my dignity and that of my fellow Americans by putting in place serious consequences for this serial hostage-taking and mistreatment of Americans by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence for clearly illegal purposes”.

The Post’s petition to the United Nations was part of a series of steps the paper took to publicize the Rezaian case and bring worldwide pressure on Iran, even as the Obama administration worked privately to secure the release of Americans it asserts were unjustly imprisoned.

In exchange, Washington granted clemency to seven Iranians and withdrew worldwide arrest notices for 14 Iranians.

Trevithick arrived Sunday night in Boston, according to his stepmother, Susan Trevithick.

The reporter was finally released at the weekend after many months of diplomatic engagement between the U.S. and Iran, that led to the Iran nuclear deal and the lifting of sanctions. A fourth American opted to stay in Iran, and a fifth American was released separately.