The release of 5 American prisoners in Iran last week caught everyone by surprise. Although it was well-known that the US Administration was in continuous talks with the IR Regime to secure the release of Amir Hekmati, Jason Rezaian and Saeed Abedini, the bigger surprise came when the names of the 4^th and the 5^th prisoners were announced; Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari and Matthew Trevithick.

Who are these two, what were they doing in Iran and why they were arrested and then released as a part of a “swap?”

Then came the next surprise. While Hekmati, Rezaian and Abedini boarded a private Swiss jet and headed to Germany for medical check and de-briefing which has been a routine for the released US hostages and prisoners for decades, it was announced that Khosravi-Roodsari had decided to stay in Iran, while Trevithick left Iran on his own and was back in Massachusetts.

This week on a popular Iranian radio program in the US, the host asked the Iranian listeners if they knew anything about Khosravi-Roodsari. Two people called the program and stated that he is known to be working with the US intelligence agencies. But they didn’t want to go beyond that.

If that is true, why would he stay in Iran? After all, if you recall the case of nuclear engineer Shahram Amiri who disappeared in Mecca in 2009 and later on showed up in the US, but after a while he changed his mind and wanted to go back to Iran and see his family. In 2010, he made up some stories, flew back to Iran, received a warm welcome, but a few months later was thrown in prison for 10 years!

Is Khosravi-Roodsari still in Iran or is he back in the US in some sort of protection program as was Amiri when he was in the US?

The 5^th prisoner Matthew Trevithick, 30, is a 2008 Boston University alum, where he studied international relations. According to NY Times, he worked at the American University of Iraq in Sulaimani. He was there for two years before relocating to Afghanistan in 2010 for a job as the director of communications for the American University in Kabul. He has traveled extensively across the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, and has picked up bits of Russian and Arabic. He went to Iran in September for what was supposed to be four months of intensive study at the Dehkhoda Lexicon Institute, a center affiliated with the University of Tehran and offering courses in Farsi. His family said that he was there to build on his fluency in Dari, a language closely related to Farsi that he learned over four years while living in Afghanistan.

Now is he a person that’s infatuated with the culture and history of that part of the world or is he there to help his government build some relationships with the locals and provide useful intelligence?

Maybe both!