Retired FBI agent Robert A. Levinson is presumed to be dead by his family and the White House Officials on Wednesday. Robert who was disappeared in 2007 from Iran was on an unauthorized mission in Iran for the CIA.
“We recently received information from U.S. officials that have 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.” his family announced in a post on the group “Help Bob Levinson”.
Robert’s family blamed the “cruel, heartless actions of the Iranian regime” for his death and shows the pain that they have no idea whether they’ll receive his body or not.
A spokesman Alireza Miryousefi who works for Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in a recent tweet, “Iran has always maintained that its officials have no knowledge of Mr. Levinson’s whereabouts and that he is not in Iranian custody. Those facts have not changed.”
Iran has always maintained that its officials have no knowledge of Mr. Levinson’s whereabouts, and that he is not in Iranian custody. Those facts have not changed. https://t.co/ZZLXYIdVAI
— Alireza Miryousefi (@miryousefi) March 25, 2020
National Investigation Adviser Robert O’Brien, issues a statement on Wednesday evening revealing that the investigation is still going on, but the U.S, believes Levinson “may have passed away some time ago.”
President Donald Trump also expressed his certainty on Levinson’s death that “It’s not looking great, but I won’t accept that he’s dead.”
“They haven’t told us that he’s dead, but a lot of people are thinking that that’s the case,” he added.
Retired Levinson was working as a private investigator for the FBI after his retirement. When Levinson disappeared from Iran’s Persian Gulf Island of Kish in March 2007, he was on an investigation for the CIA that had not been officially approved by the agency.
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Daniel Levinson, Rober’s son said in an interview in the year 2016, that his father traveled to Kish to meet with an American who had fled Iran in 1980. “My dad was working as a contractor for the CIA at the time,” he added. Daniel also mentioned that “And as far as we can tell that my dad checked out of the hotel. And according to the other man, he was approached by Iranian security forces. So a couple of weeks after that, he went missing.”
Last year, Trump administration offered $20 million, on the top of $5 million previously offered by the FBI, for information about Robert Levinson.