Iran has released a dual Iranian American citizen who had been charged with espionage and barred from leaving the country for over a year pending a trial, according to President Trump and her lawyer on Wednesday.
The woman, Dena Karari, 53, and a resident of California, had her passport seized as she visited relatives in the southwestern city of Shiraz in December 2024. While she was not detained, she was interrogated on various occasions by the authorities, according to her lawyer, Jared Genser.
On Wednesday, she was en route back to the United States, Mr. Genser said.
“Dena is now free and out of Iran and on her way back to the United States,” Mr. Genser said. “This would not have happened but for the extraordinary and relentless efforts of President Trump.”
President Trump first announced the news in a social media post, praising the act of “goodwill” by Iran, even as the war with the United States approaches its fifth month. “She is now safely outside of Iran, and in good condition,” he said in the post. “The United States of America appreciates this gesture of Goodwill by Iran!”
Mr. Genser said that Ms. Karari was caught up in Iran’s long-held practice of apprehending dual citizens to use as political pawns.
She was never held in jail but was repeatedly interrogated by officials of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and charged with collaborating with a hostile state, he said. She came under scrutiny in the wake of the June war between Iran and Israel and the United States in 2025, according to Mr. Genser. Espionage is a criminal offense in Iran that can carry many years in prison and even the death penalty.
It was not immediately clear if Ms. Karari’s release involved any kind of a reciprocal deal between Iran and the United States involving detainee swap. In 2023, the Biden administration negotiated the release of five American prisoners held in Iran in an agreement that included a hostage swap and the release of $6 billion of Iran’s frozen assets.
It was not certain if the U.S. had brought up her case and the cases of other Americans detained in Iran during its latest peace talks with Iran. The office of Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy who has participated in negotiations with Iran, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Iran at the United Nations declined to comment.
There are currently at least three other American citizens held by Iran — another woman and two men, according to their families, lawyers, and Hostage Aid Worldwide, a nonprofit organization that was founded by former hostages to help families and that is in touch with the current detainees’ friends and families.
Kamran Hekmati, a 70-year-old Jewish Iranian American jeweler who traveled to Iran in May 2025, has been held in Tehran’s Evin prison, according to family members. Mr. Hekmati has been sentenced to two years in prison for going to Israel to attend his son’s bar mitzvah, his family said.
At least one other Iranian American citizen, the journalist Reza Valizadeh, is serving a 10-year prison sentence on charges of collaborating with a hostile government and is being held in Evin prison, according to his lawyer. Mr. Valizadeh is a former employee of Radio Farda, the Persian-language news outlet that is part of the State Department-funded Radio Free Europe.
Two of the four Americans were arrested by security agents in the immediate aftermath of Israel’s attacks on Iran in June 2025, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency and Hengaw, an independent rights groups based in Washington DC. The other is a woman from California who was held in Evin prison, but her identity has not been publicly revealed.
The State Department has said in the past that it would not comment out of security and privacy concerns on individual cases of Americans held in Iran.
“Of course, there are other Americans still detained in Iran, including Kamran Hekmati and Reza Valizadeh, but I believe today’s news is a positive sign that President Trump knows about them all and will fulfill his promise to bring them all home,” Neda Sharghi, sister of a former American detainee Emad Sharghi and board member of The Foley Foundation, an advocacy group for Americans held hostage abroad.
Ms. Karari’s friends and family were overjoyed with the good news. For two years, they had anxiously lobbied for her release and nearly lost hope when war broke out between Iran and the United States and Israel in February. Ms. Karari was an employee of Palo Alto Networks and ran a nonprofit organization for impoverished children in Iran called the Children of Mehr Foundation, according to Mr. Genser.
“I am overwhelmed with relief and gratitude. After everything Dena has endured, seeing her finally reach safety is an incredibly emotional moment for all of us,” said Dr. Mehrdad Mobasher, a close friend of Ms. Karari in California who was leading the efforts for her release, in an interview.
