A Navy veteran who was jailed in Iran for several years recently repaid the generosity of a fellow inmate who helped him behind bars
had only recently arrived in a grim Iranian jail when a curious fellow prisoner, an English-speaking Iranian, approached him in the courtyard for a conversation.
“He risked his life to get the information out for me when I was in the prison in Iran. He really, really did,” White said in an interview alongside Vatankhah. “I told him I would do everything I could in my power to get him here because I felt, one, that would be for his safety in his own life. And I also felt he could get a great contributing member of society here.”
White, 50, a Southern California native who spent 13 years in the Navy, was arrested in Iran in 2018 after traveling to the country to pursue a romantic relationship with a woman he met online. He was jailed on various charges, including espionage accusations that he calls bogus, as well as allegations of insulting Iran’s supreme leader.handwritten diary
Though Vatankhah was later released, he was arrested again, this time winding up in the same cell as White in Iran’s Mashhad prison. The detailed information about White, his status and his health — he suffered from cancer and COVID-19 in prison — came at a crucial time, providing a proof-of-life of sorts at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran due to
Paris Etemadi Scott, a California lawyer who has worked with White and Vatankhah and filed the humanitarian parole application on the Iranian’s behalf, said Vatankhah’s assistance to an American — a veteran, no less — enhanced the legitimacy and urgency of his petition because it added to the potential that Vatankhah could face imminent harm.
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