By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Families of Americans still held abroad despite recent prisoner swaps orchestrated by the Biden administration at least appealed on Tuesday for more information about their loved ones as they waited and hoped for their release.
“I literally have no idea what steps are being taken to save my husband,” Anna Corbett, whose husband Ryan Corbett has been detained in Afghanistan, told a congressional committee.
“We can and must do better for our loved ones,” she said.
Corbett was among family members and representatives of nine Americans detained abroad — in Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Russia, China and Nigeria — who testified at an emotional House Foreign Affairs Committee roundtable.
The panel was one of several recent events held to draw attention to the cases of Americans held in foreign prisons for years, including a sit-in protest at the White House, and to call for some the formal designation of their loved ones as “wrongfully detained.” “
Ryan Corbett was arrested by the Taliban in August 2022 after returning to Afghanistan to pay and train his staff, his lawyers said last week as they sought U.N. assistance to secure his release. They alleged that he had been tortured and was suffering from health problems.
Corbett was declared unjustly detained in October, meaning the case will be handed over to the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, who will lead efforts to secure his release.
Gazelle Sharmahd, whose father Jamshid Sharmahd has been sentenced to death in Iran, said she wanted Congress to use its power to get more information from the government. “If you’re out there asking the same questions, they can’t ignore you,” she said.
Paul Beckett, assistant editor at the Wall Street Journal, spoke on behalf of Evan Gershkovich, a journalist at the newspaper who was arrested in March 2023. Beckett said he was grateful that Evan was quickly labeled “wrongfully detained” and said he hoped any American arrested abroad could be brought home.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
