Dear Supporters, Saturday 5th August marks 9 months to go before my 77 year old Dad (Grandpa) Kamal will have served his full 7 year sentence for alleged "espionage". Will Iran free Dad early? 5th August is the inauguration of the recently re-elected President Hassan Rouhani. The new UK Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt has confirmed publicly he is going to Tehran and that he will raise Dad’s / other UK prisoners’ detentions with Iran. With my MP Oliver Dowden, I met with Minister Burt for the first time on Tuesday 18 July (see attached photo). It turns out he was also Minister years ago when relations with Iran were plummeting and Dad first got “arrested” – let us hope we never get back to those awful times. EU Foreign Affairs Lead Federica Mogherini has also confirmed she is going to Rouhani’s inauguration. Hopefully Mogherini will use this as an opportunity to again ask Iran to free Dad, although this is not clear from her public statement. Will any of the other European countries also help try and free the longest serving European prisoner in Iran ever? Two weeks ago, the UK Parliament held a debate about Dad and the other UK citizen prisoners held in Evin prison. Many MPs speaking at the debate specifically mentioned receiving emails from constituents asking for help – thank you so much for writing. How is Dad? He has been taken to hospital for tests four times recently, yesterday, on 21st June and 8th and 19th July. Unfortunately so far Iran has not allowed Dad or us to see the results of these tests or the many others since last December. Last week, we did get the first sign of good news on the medical front, which shows how helpful your efforts have been. In the debate, my MP specifically criticised Iran for withholding the results of the tests from Dad and us (contrary to basic medical norms). Within a week, the Foreign Office had received a message from the Iranian authorities saying that results of the medical tests were ready for collection by a family member from Evin prison, which is very welcome. There is one catch – Dad has no family member in Iran. We are looking to see if there is any other way of getting hold of the results. Attention turns to Dad’s 78th birthday coming up soon, on Sunday 3rd September. It will be his 7th birthday in Evin prison away from family; being kept apart on birthdays is so hard for us all. We hope that this is Dad’s last birthday before freedom; we worry that Dad does not have many birthdays left. We are working with Amnesty International and their local groups to put together a set of birthday messages for Dad, which we will deliver in an appropriate way. If you would like to contribute by passing your own message, please send an email to GrandpaKamal@amnesty.org.uk . Please leave your first name and which country/area you are from. (In case you get a sense of déjà vu, we did something similar for Dad’s 77th birthday last year – how time flies when you’re free!) Many thanks as always for your support and kind thoughts/messages, Kamran and family