The family of former FBI agent Robert Levinson announced Wednesday their loved one died in Iranian custody. The heartbreaking news was released in a statement on the ‘Help Bob Levinson’ page.
The former FBI agent disappeared while on a visit to Iran 13 years ago.
Statement from the Levinson Family pic.twitter.com/0t3YLvGJIc
— Help Bob Levinson (@HelpBobLevinson)
“Today, with aching hearts, we are sharing devastating news about Robert Levinson, the head of our family,” the statement begins.
“We recently received information from US officials that has led both them and us to conclude that our wonderful husband and father died while in Iranian custody. We don’t know when or how he died, only that it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is impossible to describe our pain. Our family will spend the rest of our lives without the most amazing man we have ever known, a new reality that is inconceivable to us. His grandchildren will never meet him. They will only know him through the stories we tell them.
If not for the cruel, heartless actions of the Iranian regime, Robert Levinson would be alive and home with us today. It has been 13 years waiting for answers. Thirteen years since we last saw him or had any contact with him. How those responsible in Iran could do this to a human being, while repeatedly lying to the world all this time, is incomprehensible to us. They kidnapped a foreign citizen and denied him any basic human rights, and his blood is on their hands.
Bob Levinson should have spent his last moments surrounded by his family and all the love we feel for him. Instead, he died alone, in captivity thousands of miles away, in unbelievable suffering. His body has not yet been returned to us for a proper burial. We don’t even know when, or even if, his body would be returned to us. This is the very definition of cruelty.
Those who are responsible for what happened to Bob Levinson, including those in the US government, who for many years repeatedly left him behind, will ultimately receive justice for what they have done. We will spend the rest of our lives making sure of this, and the Iranian regime must know we will not be going away. We expect American officials, as well as officials around the world, to continue to press Iran to seek Bob’s return, and to ensure those Iranian officials involved are held accountable.”