STORY: Earlier, a lawyer for the Namazi family, Jared Genser, said Namazi was on his way to Muscat "after more than 6.5 years of illegal detention in Iran," referring to the time Namazi was jailed as well as when he was out of prison but effectively barred from leaving Iran.

Namazi, a former official with the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, holds U.S. and Iranian citizenship and was one of four Iranian Americans, including his son Siamak, detained in Iran in recent years or barred from leaving the country.

Namazi was convicted in 2016 of "collaboration with a hostile government" and jailed for 10 years. Iranian authorities released him on medical grounds in 2018 and closed his case in 2020, commuting his sentence to time served.

However, they had effectively barred him from leaving until Saturday (October 1), when the United Nations said he would be allowed to leave for medical treatment.

His son Siamak, 51, who was also convicted of "collaboration with a hostile government" in 2016, was released from Tehran's Evin prison Saturday on a one-week, renewable furlough after nearly seven years in detention.

The U.S. government has described the charges against both as baseless.