Kamal Foroughi
Kamal Foroughi was a British-Iranian businessman who was imprisoned in Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran. He is the oldest hostage of all time ever recorded in the world’s hostage history. Iranian authorities arrested him in May 2011 while he was 72 years old and living in Tehran as a consultant for the Malaysian national oil and gas company Petronas. In 2013, he was sentenced to eight years in prison, seven for espionage and an additional year for possessing alcohol in his home.
Background
Foroughi was born on 3 September 1939. He moved to Britain from Iran in the 1970s. He has two children.Foroughi later suffered from Alzheimer's disease. He died on 3 June 2024, at the age of 84.
Arrest and imprisonment in Iran
On 14 October 2015, The Guardian reported for the first time that Foroughi, a "76-year-old British national has been held in an Iranian jail for more than four years and convicted of spying." His family chose to publicly speak out years after his arrest in order to "draw attention to the plight of a man they describe as one of the 'oldest and loneliest prisoners in Iran.'"Iranian plain clothes authorities arrested Foroughi on 5 May 2011. They "apparently did not show an arrest warrant or explain to him the reasons for arrest." At the time, he was working in Tehran as a consultant for the Malaysian national oil and gas company Petronas. They jailed him in Evin Prison, "where he was held in solitary confinement for periods of time, without access to a lawyer or his family." In 2013, Foroughi was sentenced to eight years in prison, seven for espionage and an additional year for possessing alcohol in his home. His son Kamran said, "My dad’s detention has been a total nightmare for all the family… We are not aware of any evidence that justifies the espionage charge."