Senior Republican Senator Marco Rubio has called for the release of Iranian dual citizen Emad Sharghi on his fourth year in an Iranian prison.

Rubio said in a tweet on Friday it’s four years that Sharghi remains unjustly detained in the notorious Evin Prison under false charges.

Senator Rubio called for the immediate release and safe reunification of the American-Iranian with his family, said his tweet.

In January 2021, Iran’s Young Journalists’ Club (YJC), which is affiliated with the state broadcaster, reported that the 56-year-old businessman was arrested on December 6.The report said he had been sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of espionage and collecting military intelligence but had attempted to flee while on bail awaiting the result of an appeal.

According to Iranian media, Sharghi served as the international deputy head of Sarava, a major Iranian holding company, but following the announcement of his arrest, Sarava said that Sharghi’s involvement had ended in May 2018.

Allegations that dual nationals are taken prisoner to swap them with Iranian prisoners held abroad, often serving sentences for violating US sanctions or on ‘terrorism’ charges, have been made in several cases of dual nationals detained in Iran.

Earlier in the week, families of two German and two Austrian citizens currently jailed in Iran called on the governments in Berlin and Vienna to demand their release as part of nuclear talks with Tehran.