Second Evin Prison Recording Alleges US Detainee Denied Chemotherapy

Five Americans are detained in Iran, and two of them are held at Evin Prison in Tehran, according to reporting around the latest recording by CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan ⁶⁷⁹. That number is the scale that gives the new allegation its weight, because it places a claim about one sick prisoner inside a small, known group of U.S. citizens in Iranian custody rather than an isolated case ⁶⁷⁹. The newest account comes from inside Evin itself and centers on one of those fellow detained Americans, a man with cancer whose chemotherapy the recording says was cut off by re-arrest ⁶³. All of the medical claims rest solely on that recording, with no independent confirmation, medical verification, or official response in the available evidence ²³⁶.

What is established is provenance and timing. On August 7, 2026, CBS News published a second audio recording from inside Evin Prison sent by detained U.S. journalist Reza Valizadeh to Brennan ²⁹⁷. It was his first communication since June, and, per his attorney Ryan Fayhee, he wanted the statement made public ²⁹⁷. The broadcast aired August 8, 2026 ⁶. The sources confirm only two recordings, on June 5 and August 7, 2026, and document no outcomes or official statements beyond their publication ⁵¹⁰².

The name at the center of the chemotherapy allegation is spelled differently across the available accounts, and the accounts disagree. The video caption renders it as Karan Hakmati, while VOA Persian and CRBC use Kamran Hekmati and Komran Hekmati ³⁶. This article uses Kamran Hekmati, following the research file, without treating one transliteration as settled while the sources differ ³⁶.

The most consequential claim is that Hekmati, who has cancer, was released for a period but was re-arrested before starting chemotherapy, so the treatment was effectively denied ⁶³. The recording frames that interruption not as a scheduling delay but as custody itself preventing the start of cancer care ⁶³. That allegation comes solely from Valizadeh's recording and is unverified in the available evidence, with no medical records, independent examination, or official account to test it against ²³⁶. Whether authorities will verify Hekmati's condition and restore access to chemotherapy remains unresolved ²³⁶.

The recording places that individual claim inside a broader allegation of systemic failure. Medical services in Evin Prison have been almost nonexistent for over a year, with only the most basic medications available, according to the recording ²¹¹. The phrase almost nonexistent is Valizadeh's characterization, not an independent medical audit, and it too is unverified ²¹¹. If care is as limited as alleged, chronically ill prisoners would face progression of treatable disease inside a closed facility where outside supply and specialist access are constrained ²¹¹.

Medicines purchased and sent by prisoners' families are allegedly stolen by prison staff before reaching inmates, the recording says ³. That allegation matters because family supply is often the fallback when a prison pharmacy is thin, and interception would sever the last outside supply chain for people who cannot obtain even basic drugs internally ³. Like the chemotherapy claim, the theft allegation comes solely from Valizadeh's recording, with no independent confirmation or official response in the available evidence ³.

The recording also alleges that tuberculosis has returned among inmates and that prisoners who complain about conditions are deprived of family contact ³¹¹. The return of tuberculosis, if true, would signal crowding, poor ventilation, and failed infection control layered onto already limited care, raising risk not only for the sick but for the general population held with them ³¹¹. The alleged link between complaint and loss of contact would further isolate the people most likely to report illness, leaving outside families and advocates without timely information ³¹¹. Both points are unverified and rest solely on the recording ³¹¹.

Valizadeh ties the contact allegation to his own case. His family visits have been blocked for five months, which he believes is punishment ⁴. That five-month gap is both a personal hardship claim and, in his account, evidence for how deprivation of family contact functions as retaliation ⁴. It is reported as his belief, not as a confirmed prison order, and no official explanation appears in the available evidence ⁴.

Brennan's reporting provides the wider count that frames the case. She reported that there are currently five U.S. citizens detained in Iran, with two held at Evin Prison ⁶⁷⁹. That count is the reason the second recording carries beyond one man's voice memo, because it suggests at least one other American is held in the same facility where care is described as almost nonexistent and family medicines are said not to arrive ⁶⁷⁹. The sources do not identify the other detainees beyond Valizadeh and Hekmati in the material reviewed ⁶⁷⁹.

The earlier recording helps show what Valizadeh has asked for. In his first recording on June 5, 2026, he pleaded for medical help for himself and other American captives ⁵. In that plea he said that even if treating diseases was a large demand, Iranian authorities could at least reduce some of the physical pressure and mental strain of captivity ⁵. The August recording extends that plea from general conditions to a named fellow prisoner and a specific treatment said to have been denied before it began ⁶³.

No independent confirmation, medical verification, or official response from U.S. or Iranian authorities appears in the available evidence ²³⁶. That absence defines the limits of what a reader can take from the story now: provenance is documented, the allegations are detailed, but their truth, the current health of Hekmati and Valizadeh, and any state action to verify or treat them are not ²³⁶. No outcomes or official statements are documented in the sources reviewed ⁵¹⁰².