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Iran Sentences American To Death For Spying

Posted by: Linda Carbonell on January 9, 2012.

Amir Mirzai Hekmati

Amir Mirzai Hekmati is a 28-year-old former American Marine, born in the U. S. A. whose parents immigrated from Iran. His father Ali Hekmati is a college professor in Flint, Michigan. His grandparents are still in Iran, and according to some sources, Amir has dual citizenship with Iran.

Since leaving the Marines, where he served as an Arabic translator, Hekmati has been working for a private contractor. Most recently, he was assigned to a job in Qatar. On August 29, while visiting his grandparents, he was arrested by the Iranian security forces. Last month, he was put on trial for spying, accused of being trained by the CIA to infiltrate Iranian security systems. In last December, he appeared on Iranian state television to “confess” to his crime, confession being very important in Iranian justice.

The Iranians have found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Hekmati has 20 days to appeal his conviction.

In past cases, where Americans have been captured in Iran and convicted of spying, they were no usually sentenced to death, and they were released after paying “bail” which could range up to half a million dollars. But things right now are even worse than they have been in the past few years. The world is slowly tightening sanctions on Iran, and the next threatened sanctions would destroy the Iranian economy, cutting off Iranian oil exports and ending international transactions with Iran’s central bank. The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the next level of sanctions “will not have any impact on our nation. The Islamic establishment…knows firmly what it is doing and has chosen its path and will stay the course,” in pursuing nuclear power. The International Atomic Energy Agency has verified that Iran has an underground nuclear research sit near the holy city of Qom, a strategic choice of site as any United States or Israeli attack would, in their opinion, probably harm the city, enraging Muslims worldwide.

The United States uses diplomats from Switzerland to communicate with Iran because we have no diplomatic relations with the country. The Swiss have been denied access to Hekmati. He has not been allowed outside counsel or contact, and is totally at the mercy of the Iranian justice system.