Great Neck Estates' Kamran Hekmati is 'wrongful detainee' in Iran, U.S. State Department says

A Jewish American from Great Neck Estates held for more than 300 days in Iran has been designated a "wrongful detainee" by the U.S. Department of State, giving new hope to family and supporters working for his release.

The designation for Kamran Hekmati, 61, was made on Monday at the urging of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. It follows months of bipartisan advocacy by Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) and Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-New Hartford), as well as work by Global Reach, a nonprofit advocating for Hekmati's release on behalf of his wife and their three adult children.

Hekmati, who has been held since last May, is one of at least six Americans who advocates say are being unjustly detained in Iran.

"This is a clear, cut-and-dry case of wrongful detention," Suozzi said in an emailed statement to Newsday on Tuesday. He added: "Mr. Hekmati and the numerous other Americans being imprisoned in Iran are not being held for any crimes they committed, but because they’re an American. In Mr. Hekmati’s case, a Jewish American."

 In a statement, Rubio said: " ... when it comes to hostage taking, there has been no worse offender in the world than the clerical regime in Tehran." 

Designating Hekmati a wrongful detainee triggers the government to employ a host of official actions — diplomatic, legal and economic — in an effort to secure his release, Suozzi said in his statement, calling it "a promising step."

According to the official website for the U.S. Department of State Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, the designation comes through implementation of the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act and fosters the partnership between a coalition of government and private sector organizations to work toward securing the freedom of U.S. hostages and wrongful detainees held abroad. While SPEHA said most individuals were detained abroad as result of legitimate law enforcement and judicial processes, in "rare instances" the detentions were "wrongful" — leading to the designation.

In the case of Hekmati, a jeweler and a village zoning official, supporters said he was detained by Iranian security forces last May when he visited the country on family business.

Ultimately, Hekmati was sentenced to two years in prison because he’d previously traveled to Israel — illegal under Iranian law. Among the charges levied against Hekmati was that he’d met with agents of the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, though his family argued that had never happened — and that his visit to Israel, made 13 years before his detainment, was for a nephew’s bar mitzvah.

That time frame alone, supporters said, should’ve placed the travel to Israel outside of the 10-year look-back period defined in Iranian law.

On Tuesday, Global Reach released a statement on behalf of Shohreh Nowfar, identified as a cousin of Hekmati, who said: "We are so grateful to President Trump and Secretary Rubio for their designation of Kamran Hekmati as a wrongful detainee. This designation is an official recognition by the US Government that Kamran is being held on false charges in an effort by the Iranians to leverage the US Government. It reassures us that our government has our back in the effort to get Kamran home safely."

On Feb. 27 the State Department designated Iran a "State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention."

A day later, the United States and Israel began launching military attacks on Iran.

The United States does not have diplomatic or consular relations with Iran.

It is believed that Hekmati is being held in Evin prison on the northern outskirts of Tehran, a facility the Human Rights Watch has described as "overcrowded, filthy, and insect-infested" — and, where inmates are subjected to "ill-treatment and violence." 

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a Newsday reporter since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press, Society of the Silurians and National Headliner Awards for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing. He is the author of “Swee'pea,” about New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. His debut crime novel, “For Nothing Is Hidden,” rooted in 1950s Long Island, was released in October 2025.