“I am to happy announce that Navy Veteran, Michael White, who has been detained by Iran for 683 days, is on a Swiss plane that just left Iranian Airspace,” Trump tweeted. “We expect him to be home with his family in America very soon….”
White, a veteran from California, was sentenced in 2019 to 10 years in an Iranian prison. His lawyer said at the time that the charges were unclear.
White had been granted a medical furlough after he contracted COVID-19 in an Iranian prison in March. He was transferred into the custody of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which acts as a diplomatic mediator between the U.S. and Iran.