Obama asked to release Iranian woman

The mother of an “innocent” Iranian woman held in the US since 2007 has asked the US president to release her daughter, saying the detainee is experiencing a “difficult time.”

“It’s difficult not to see your child for three years, especially for something which is not her fault… she has a very difficult time there,” Belghis Rovshan, whose daughter Shahrzad Mir-Qolikhan has been in prison in the US for three years, told Press TV on Monday.

“I want to ask Mr. Obama to release my daughter immediately… I want him to think about her two little daughters and their feelings,” she said.

Mir-Qolikhan was arrested in the US in 2007. Her ex-husband, Mahmoud Seif, had allegedly tried to export night-vision goggles to Iran from Austria.

She was sentenced to five years in prison by a Florida federal court in his absence.

Rovshan said her daughter is being kept in improper conditions and lacks clean water and food.

Mir-Qolikhan earlier told Press TV in an exclusive interview that she has been tortured in prison.

The US has detained several Iranian nationals on charges of violating the US-imposed sanctions against Iran.

Washington has called on Tehran to release three of it nationals charged with illegally entering the country and espionage.

Sarah Shourd, one of the three US nationals, was released on bail of USD 500,000 in September, 14 months after her arrest.

Iran said the decision was made on humanitarian grounds.