The United States has evidence that a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who disappeared in Iran four years ago is alive and being held in the region, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement on Thursday.
The former agent, Robert Levinson, who had worked as a private investigator since leaving the F.B.I., disappeared in March 2007 while on a trip to Kish Island, a Persian Gulf resort that is a smuggling hub.
For nearly three-and-a-half years, Mr. Levinson’s fate was unclear and Iranian officials have repeatedly denied knowing anything about what happened to him. But late last year, Mr. Levinson’s family received documentary proof that he was still alive, and efforts to locate and free him have since been under way.
In her statement, Mrs. Clinton said that American officials had received indications that Mr. Levinson “is being held somewhere in southwest Asia.”
David L. McGee, a lawyer who represents Mr. Levinson and his family, declined to comment about the case other than to say that federal authorities had asked him not to discuss it.
Mr. Levinson disappeared after a meeting on Kish with an American fugitive known as Dawud Salahuddin who had fled to Iran in 1980 after assassinating a former aide to the Shah of Iran outside his home near Washington.
Both United States officials and Mr. Levinson’s family have since said that the former agent went to Iran to investigate cigarette smuggling.
Mr. Levinson, who is now 62, lives in Coral Springs, Fla., 20 miles north of Fort Lauderdale. He and his wife, Christine, have seven children, most of whom are grown.
Before Mr. Levinson’s retirement from the F.B.I. in 1998, he specialized in Russian organized crime, money laundering and narcotics-related cases. Most of his work as a private investigator involved product counterfeiting, though he also worked for some public advocacy groups.
It was an assignment for one such organization, Global Witness, a London-based group that investigates corporate and governmental corruption that took him to Dubai in March 2007. After spending several days there, he flew to Kish for his meeting with Mr. Salahuddin.
In the years since his disappearance, sporadic reports about Mr. Levinson have emerged out of Iran, including indications that he was arrested by Iranian authorities.
A senior administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity said that Iranian officials had indicated several months ago that they were willing to assist in the search for the Mr. Levinson. “We are now formally asking Iran to enable Mr. Levinson to reunite with his family,” the administration official said.
According to a State Department cable obtained by WikiLeaks, an Iranian dissident told United States officials in 2009 that he saw Mr. Levinson’s name scratched into the door frame of a jail cell at a secret prison near Tehran operated by the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Last fall, during a trip to the United States, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said that while his government had no information about Mr. Levinson, it was willing to help American authorities investigate his case.
Mrs. Clinton said in her statement Thursday: “As the government of Iran has previously offered its assistance in this matter, we respectfully request the Iranian government to undertake humanitarian efforts to safely return and reunite Bob with his family.”
A statement released Thursday on a Web site operated by Mr. Levinson’s family read: “Our family is tremendously encouraged by the news Bob is alive, but remains concerned for his safety and well being.”
The former agent, Robert Levinson, who had worked as a private investigator since leaving the F.B.I., disappeared in March 2007 while on a trip to Kish Island, a Persian Gulf resort that is a smuggling hub.
In her statement, Mrs. Clinton said that American officials had received indications that Mr. Levinson “is being held somewhere in southwest Asia.”
David L. McGee, a lawyer who represents Mr. Levinson and his family, declined to comment about the case other than to say that federal authorities had asked him not to discuss it.
Mr. Levinson disappeared after a meeting on Kish with an American fugitive known as Dawud Salahuddin who had fled to Iran in 1980 after assassinating a former aide to the Shah of Iran outside his home near Washington.
Both United States officials and Mr. Levinson’s family have since said that the former agent went to Iran to investigate cigarette smuggling.
Mr. Levinson, who is now 62, lives in Coral Springs, Fla., 20 miles north of Fort Lauderdale. He and his wife, Christine, have seven children, most of whom are grown.
Before Mr. Levinson’s retirement from the F.B.I. in 1998, he specialized in Russian organized crime, money laundering and narcotics-related cases. Most of his work as a private investigator involved product counterfeiting, though he also worked for some public advocacy groups.
It was an assignment for one such organization, Global Witness, a London-based group that investigates corporate and governmental corruption that took him to Dubai in March 2007. After spending several days there, he flew to Kish for his meeting with Mr. Salahuddin.
In the years since his disappearance, sporadic reports about Mr. Levinson have emerged out of Iran, including indications that he was arrested by Iranian authorities.
A senior administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity said that Iranian officials had indicated several months ago that they were willing to assist in the search for the Mr. Levinson. “We are now formally asking Iran to enable Mr. Levinson to reunite with his family,” the administration official said.
According to a State Department cable obtained by WikiLeaks, an Iranian dissident told United States officials in 2009 that he saw Mr. Levinson’s name scratched into the door frame of a jail cell at a secret prison near Tehran operated by the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Last fall, during a trip to the United States, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said that while his government had no information about Mr. Levinson, it was willing to help American authorities investigate his case.
Mrs. Clinton said in her statement Thursday: “As the government of Iran has previously offered its assistance in this matter, we respectfully request the Iranian government to undertake humanitarian efforts to safely return and reunite Bob with his family.”
A statement released Thursday on a Web site operated by Mr. Levinson’s family read: “Our family is tremendously encouraged by the news Bob is alive, but remains concerned for his safety and well being.”
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