Expressing Concern About the Welfare of Emad Shargi

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I rise to express concern about the welfare of Emad Shargi, a longtime resident of the District of Columbia who has been unjustly and inhumanely detained in Iran since 2018.

While visiting his wife's family in Iran, Mr. Shargi was arrested in the middle of the night by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and forcefully taken to the notorious Evin Prison, where he was held in solitary confinement and intensely interrogated for eight months. He was then released and cleared of the fabricated charges but was denied the return of his travel documents and banned from leaving the country. In November 2020, he was sentenced, without a trial, to 10 years in prison on fabricated charges. He is in Evin Prison. His family and I are concerned about his well-being.

I call upon the State Department to prioritize the immediate release of Emad Shargi and to do everything possible to bring him home safely.

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