Dena Karari has left Iran after being barred from leaving for more than a year, and she is now traveling back to the United States, her attorney said Wednesday. The U.S.-Iran dual citizen had been unable to leave since December 2024 under an exit ban that kept her inside Iran without imprisoning her.
The departure gives a concrete ending to a case that had stalled in place for months. Karari was never formally charged, even though her attorney said the accusations against her were bogus, and Iranian authorities still did not let her go when the exit ban expired in April. That left her trapped in Iran while her status remained unresolved.
Two sources told CBS News that Karari suffered a heart attack on July 8, adding urgency to a case that had already stretched on for months. The same sources said her name was included on a list of Americans that the U.S. State Department gave to Steve Witkoff, a detail that appears to have mattered when the final decision was made to let her leave. Donald Trump then said on Truth Social that Iran had released a U.S. citizen and that the person was now outside Iran in good condition.
The mechanics of Karari’s departure matter because an exit ban is not the same as a prison sentence. It allows authorities to hold someone in place without filing charges or putting them behind bars, and in Karari’s case that restraint continued even after the ban’s expiration date passed in April. The State Department declined to comment, leaving the path from pressure to release only partly visible.
Her exit also lands at a moment when relations between the United States and Iran are moving in the opposite direction. Fighting between the two countries has resumed over the last week, several Americans remain imprisoned in Iran, and Kamran Hekmati and Reza Valizadeh have already been formally designated as wrongfully detained. Last month, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding that extended their ceasefire for 60 days, but the release of detained Americans was not part of that agreement. For Karari, the immediate next step is simpler: a flight home, after a year in which Iran would not let her leave at all.
