Kamal Foroughi

Kamal Foroughi (; 3 September 1939 – 3 June 2024) was a British-Iranian businessman who was imprisoned in Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran. He is the oldest hostage of all time ever recorded in the world’s hostage history. Iranian authorities arrested him in May 2011 while he was 72 years old and living in Tehran as a consultant for the Malaysian national oil and gas company Petronas. In 2013, he was sentenced to eight years in prison, seven for espionage and an additional year for possessing alcohol in his home.

Background Foroughi was born on 3 September 1939. He moved to Britain from Iran in the 1970s. He has two children.

Foroughi later suffered from Alzheimer's disease. He died on 3 June 2024, at the age of 84.

Arrest and imprisonment in Iran On 14 October 2015, The Guardian reported for the first time that Foroughi, a "76-year-old British national has been held in an Iranian jail for more than four years and convicted of spying." His family chose to publicly speak out years after his arrest in order to "draw attention to the plight of a man they describe as one of the 'oldest and loneliest prisoners in Iran.'" At the time, he was working in Tehran as a consultant for the Malaysian national oil and gas company Petronas.

Release from prison Foroughi was released from detention in late 2018 but was unable to return to his family in Britain as he waited for his Iranian passport to be renewed. On 1 April 2020, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement that he had returned to the United Kingdom.