![\"Great](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GNEstatesVillageHall.jpg\")
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Great Neck Estates resident and zoning board of appeals member Kamran Hekmati \u201cadvocated for Iran,\u201d Village of Great Neck mayor Pedram Bral said. <\/p>\n
Cameryn Oakes<\/p>\n
An Iranian American Jewish man from Great Neck has been held in an Iranian prison<\/a> since July and charged with\u00a0 with traveling to Israel 13 years ago.<\/a>, his family told The New York Times. \u00a0<\/a>Kamran Hekmati, 70, was sentenced to four years in prison in late August.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since The Times reported on Hekmati\u2019s imprisonment on Nov. 6. the community has advocated for Hekmati\u2019s release. This includes U.S. Rep. Thomas Suozzi of New York\u2019s 3rd Congressional District who wrote a Nov. 11\u00a0 letter to\u00a0 Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging immediate action by the State Department to secure Hekmati\u2019s.<\/p>\n Hekmati is a Great Neck Estates resident and a member of the village\u2019s zoning board who owns a jewelry business based in New York City. According to Village of Great Neck Mayor Pedram Bral, Hekmati advocated for Iran while being a \u201cvery active part\u201d of the Great Neck community, known to people as kind and loving. Bral said he has known Hekmati for 25 to 30 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe really advocated \u2013 he did advocate for Iran. I mean, believe it or not, he was an advocate for Iran, which I found very surprising, and for him now to be held hostage \u2013 it\u2019s ironic,\u201d Bral said. \u201cHe\u2019s a 70-year-old man, his wife and his children and brothers in the community are desperately waiting for him to come home.\u201d<\/p>\n Bral said Hekmati never spoke negatively about Iran and had traveled there multiple times over the years, including many visits after his trip to Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would have thought he would be the last one that they take because, you know, he never said anything negative about the government,\u201d Bral said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bral also said Hekmati contributed to Great Neck\u2019s Jewish community.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a kind, genuine gentleman who was an active member of his community,\u201d Bral said. \u201cHe gave to Great Neck. He gave to his Jewish community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He said the community is cautiously hopeful about Hekmati\u2019s future.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are hopeful, but at the same time, they know what this government is capable of,\u201d Bral said. \u201cThere\u2019s no rhyme or reason. There\u2019s none.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n David Esh, chairman of the Great Neck Estates Zoning Board of Appeals, echoed the idea that the community isn\u2019t sure how to help Hekmati.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs far as the community goes, for me it\u2019s hard to ascertain what we can do other than, for example, talking to you and the press to try to get the word out,\u201d Esh said. \u201cSo hopefully the government and the State Department can advocate for him to try to get him back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Esh served alongside Hekmati on the zoning board, of which he said Hekmati is one of the longest-standing members. He said his interactions with Hekmati are limited to zoning board-related matters, but that he knows him as courteous.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just sad to see that you know Kamran is paying the price for the politicians there trying to advance their political will,\u201d he said, referring to the Iranian government.\u00a0<\/p>\n Village of Great Neck Estates residents expressed interest in sending personal letters to the federal government on behalf of Hekmati at a meeting on Nov. 10. Mayor William Warner said he will reach out to the Iranian-American Jewish Federation of New York for support.\u00a0<\/p>\n Warner could not be reached prior to publication, nor could a representative of the Great Neck Estates Board of Tustees or members of Hekmati\u2019s family. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Great Neck Estates resident and zoning board of appeals member Kamran Hekmati \u201cadvocated for Iran,\u201d Village of Great…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[24321,24322,14670,24323,24324,9,24,63,24325,122,124,123,20642],"class_list":["post-42321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-great-neck-estates","tag-great-neck-estates-zoning-board-of-appeals","tag-iran","tag-iranian-prison","tag-kamran-hekmati","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-pedram-bral","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-village-of-great-neck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}