RFERL reports that Christine Levinson is awaiting a response to her application for a visa to travel to Iran to search for her husband, Bobby Levinson, who has been missing since March 8, last seen on the Iranian island Kish.
The wife of a former FBI agent who disappeared in March while on a business trip to Iran told Radio Farda today that she has traveled to New York to try to meet with Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, who is expected to speak at the UN General Assembly. Christine Levinson told Radio Farda that she has not been able yet to get an appointment with the Iranian president.
[photo of Robert Levinson via RadioFarda.com
, credited “public domain’]
“I keep trying to get an appointment, I know he’s a very busy man but I hope he will be able to find even 10 minutes to see me,” she said. “I want to ask him for his help in finding my husband, I know that he has the ability to find him.”Robert Levinson was last seen on March 8 on Kish Island off the southern coast of Iran, where according to his family he had gone to seek information on cigarette smuggling.
His wife told Radio Farda that she has applied for an Iranian visa to travel to Iran and seek information on her missing husband. She said Iranian authorities are reviewing her visa request.
“I believe it’s close to one month or so before they get back to me, but I did give them a letter stating what I would like to do so,” she said. “I hope they will be able to give me” a visa.
Christine Levinson also appealed to those who might have seen her husband to contact her and her family through the website they have launched (http://www.helpboblevinson.com).
[“Radio Farda and RadioFarda.com is a joint project of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VOA).” Link]
Of the series of Iranian-Americans recently held in Iran, Parnaz Azima, is herself
a broadcaster with Radio Farda, was prevented from leaving Iran since a visit to her sick mother in January, when authorities confiscated her passport and charged her with working with Radio Farda and spreading propaganda against the state. On September 3, intelligence officials told her to collect her passport. Azima left Iran on September 18.
It’s a good thing that Christine Levinson is keeping up the pressure; and, we think, also that it’s being covered by an outlet of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America. Which, although semi-independent, are U.S. government entities. It’s at least consistent with someone in the executive branch remembering the government’s obligations to its citizens.