President Trump on Wednesday said an American citizen “wrongfully detained” by Iran since December 2024 has been released as a gesture of goodwill.
“Iran has allowed an American Citizen, who was wrongfully detained in December of 2024 under the ‘presidency’ of Sleepy Joe Biden, to leave the Country. She is now safely outside of Iran, and in good condition,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“The United States of America appreciates this gesture of Goodwill by Iran!” he added.
BREAKING: President Trump announced that Iran has released an American citizen who had been detained since December 2024, saying she is now safely out of the country and in good condition.
Trump thanked Iran for what he called a “gesture of goodwill” in allowing her to leave. pic.twitter.com/kKzAwevSJY
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 15, 2026
The Hill shared further:
The American citizen was later identified as Dena Karari by her lawyer Jared Genser on the social media platform X. He said his client has been trapped in Iran since December 2024 “on bogus charges” and that “this would not have happened but for the extraordinary and relentless efforts” of President Trump.
“Dena is now safe and traveling back to the United States,” Genser concluded.
ADVERTISEMENTTrump’s announcement follows increased tensions between the U.S. and Iran in recent days. The president on Monday said that the U.S.’s naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz would be back in place as Washington and Tehran battled for control of the waterway following exchanged strikes last weekend.
“The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran,” Trump said on Truth Social. “We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE, so named because it is only stopping Iran’s ships or customers from entering or leaving.”
“All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait,” he said, also saying that the U.S. would be called “the Guardian of the Hormuz Strait.”
“Two sources tell me that Dena Kariri recently suffered a heart attack while trapped in Iran under an effective exit ban. She is now being allowed to leave. She had been accused of espionage but never charged under Iranian law or imprisoned. I’m told her name was on a list of Americans that USG put together to request release,” CBS chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan said.
“CBS is tracking 5 other Americans, two have been legally designated by State as wrongfully detained: Kamran Hekmati and journalist Reza Valizadeh,” she added.
Two sources tell me that Dena Kariri recently suffered a heart attack while trapped in Iran under an effective exit ban. She is now being allowed to leave. She had been accused of espionage but never charged under Iranian law or imprisoned. I'm told her name was on a list of… https://t.co/qAEYHI1Pt7
— Margaret Brennan (@margbrennan) July 16, 2026
The New York Times reported last year that Iran had “at least four Iranian Americans” in custody.
“Three of the Americans are in jail, and one has been barred from leaving the country,” the outlet stated in August 2025.
The U.S. State Department called on Iran to “immediately release all unjustly detained individuals.”
More from The New York Times:
The four detained Iranian Americans had all lived in the United States and had traveled to Iran to visit family, according to the rights groups. The families of three of the Americans have asked that their names not be published for fear it could make their situations worse.
Two of the four were arrested by security agents in the immediate aftermath of Israel’s attacks on Iran in June, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (or HRANA) and Hengaw, independent rights groups based outside of Iran.
One is a 70-year-old Jewish father and grandfather from New York who has a jewelry business. He is being questioned about a trip to Israel, according to the rights groups and the man’s colleagues and friends.
The other is a woman from California who was held in the notorious Evin prison. But her whereabouts is now unclear after Israel attacked Evin in June and the prison was evacuated, according to rights groups and Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian British scholar who was imprisoned in Iran for two years and released in 2020.
Iran is also holding another Iranian American woman, who was first imprisoned and prevented from leaving the country in December 2024. She is currently out of prison, but her Iranian and American passports were confiscated, according to her U.S.-based lawyer who asked not to be named to discuss sensitive information.
The woman works for an American technological company and runs a charity for underprivileged children in Iran. But after the recent war, the Iranian judiciary elevated her case and charged her with espionage, according to her lawyer — a serious crime that can carry many years in prison and even the death penalty.
