Arthur Stark, Chairman, William Daroff, CEO, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, issued a statement on Thursday about the death of former FBI agent Robert Levinson.
“We are saddened and outraged to hear of the passing of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who is believed to have died in Iran prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. His death may be attributed to the brutality of the Iranian regime, which held him hostage for 13 years while denying knowledge of his whereabouts,” they wrote.
“We extend our sincere condolences to the Levinson family, and condemn Iran in the strongest possible terms for this atrocity. We call on the Iranian regime to provide information about what led to Levinson’s death, and to release all American prisoners being held in captivity,” the Jewish leaders added.
On Wednesday, Levinson’s family announced that they believe he is dead.
“We recently received information from US officials that has led both them and us to conclude that our wonderful husband and father died while in Iranian custody. We don’t know when or how he died, only that it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,” they said in a statement.
Levinson vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission. In the past, Iran insisted that Levinson is not in the country and that it has no further information about him, but in November it acknowledged for the first time it has an open case before its Revolutionary Court regarding Levinson.
Levinson was not included in a 2016 breakthrough prisoner swap between Iran and the US, which saw four American citizens freed in return for the release of seven Iranians jailed in the United States.
Levinson’s family in 2017 filed a lawsuit against the Iranian government in the United States. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from Iran, in part for inflicting emotional distress on Levinson’s wife and seven children.
Source » israelnationalnews