Iran Sentences spy to death
Iran sentences ‘spy’ to death
A court in Tehran has sentenced an Iranian American to death, after he was convicted of spying for the Central Intelligence Agency, according to Iranian media. The sentencing of Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, 28, is likely to add to the tension between the United States and Iran, which has been escalating over the Islamic Republic’s disputed nuclear programme.
The US State Department has demanded Hekmati’s release, saying he was falsely accused. Meanwhile, Hekmati’s family said they have struggled to provide him with an attorney in Iran. “We have sought to hire at least ten different attorneys to no avail,” the family said in a statement. They said Hekmati’s “only advocate in Iran was a government-appointed lawyer who he met on the first day of his trial.” Prosecutors accused Hekmati of “co-operation with an enemy government, membership in the CIA and attempts to accuse Iran of supporting terrorism,” the republic’s Fars news agency reported.
A branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Court found him to be a “corrupter on Earth” and “waging war on God,” news service reports said. Last month, Iranian state television broadcast video of a purported confession by Hekmati in which he said he had been sent by the CIA to infiltrate Iranian intelligence services. Iran alleges that Hekmati served at US bases in Iraq and Afghanistan and received specialised training. The Intelligence Ministry said its agents identified Hekmati at Bagram air base in neighbouring Afghanistan and tracked him as he infiltrated Iran. Fars reported that Hekmati repeated the alleged confession at a closed-door trial last month, telling court he was “fooled” by the CIA and did not want to “strike a blow” at Iran.
Hekmati’s family said any confessions would have been made under duress. His father, Ali Hekmati, a community college professor in Michigan told news agencies that his son was a former US military translator who was in Iran to visit his two grandmothers. The younger Hekmati was born in Arizona, according to the AP report. It is not clear exactly when he was arrested. His father told the news service it was about three weeks after he arrived, in August.
