A U.S. businessman jailed in Iran has tried going on a hunger strike to improve his condition and has not been allowed to speak to his lawyer, relatives say.
Siamak Namazi, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen, was detained by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in October while visiting relatives, according to his family. Iranian authorities have not announced any charges against him.
Namazi's mother, Effie Namazi, reported over the weekend that her son had started a hunger strike.
The strike "greatly increased the worries of his family," Effie Namazi wrote on Facebook. She urged Iranian officials to allow her to visit her son and convince him to stop the strike.
The plea was evidently effective, as on February 22 Effie Namazi said in a new Facebook posting that her son had broken the hunger strike and spoken to her by phone, Reuters reported.
"We thank God," she said.
Namazi most recently worked for Crescent Petroleum, an oil and gas company in the United Arab Emirates. Previously, he headed a consulting firm in Iran, where he was born. He was educated in the United States.