Iran Sentences U.S. 'Spy' to Death Iran has sentenced a former U.S. Marine to death on charges of spying for the CIA, Iranian state media reported Monday. Iran's Revolutionary Court found 28-year-old Amir Hekmati "Corrupt on Earth," said the Fars news agency, and sentenced him to death "for cooperating with the hostile country . . . and spying for the CIA." Under Iranian law, Hekmati has 20 days to appeal. His trial and death sentence came as Iran announced that it had enriched uranium at an underground facility and as the U.S. imposed harsher economic sanctions on Iran to stop its nuclear program. Hekmati's mother Behnaz Hekmati released a statement saying that she and her husband Ali were "shocked and terrified by the news that our son, Amir, has been sentenced to death. We believe that this verdict is a result of a process that was neither transparent nor fair." "Amir did not engage in any acts of spying, or 'fighting against God,'" as the convicting judge has claimed in his sentence," said the statement. "Amir is not a criminal. His life is being exploited for political gain." The U.S. State Department has asked the Iranian government repeatedly to allow Swiss diplomats, who represent U.S. interests in Iran, to meet with Hekmati. Iran has refused, according to the State Dept. Hekmati's family also said they had been rebuffed in all attempts to speak with the Iranian government. "A grave error has been committed," said Hekmati's parents Monday. "We pray that Iran will show compassion and not murder our son, Amir, a natural born American citizen, who was visiting Iran and his relatives for the first time." Hekmati, an Arizona-born Iranian-American who served the U.S. Marines as a rifleman from 2001 to 2005, was arrested while visiting his extended family, including two elderly grandmothers, in Tehran on Aug. 29, 2011, according to the family. The family said they were urged by the Iranian government to keep quiet about his arrest with the promise of later release, but then in December, Hekmati was shown on Iranian television allegedly confessing to being an undercover agent of the Central Intelligence Agency on a mission to infiltrate the Iranian Intelligence Ministry. "It was their [the CIA's] plan to first burn some useful information, give it to them [the Iranians] and let Iran's Intelligence Ministry think that this is good material," Hekmati says calmly in the video. In an exclusive interview with ABC News shortly after the broadcast, Hekmati's father strongly denied his son was a spy and said the confession was forced. "My son is no spy. He is innocent. He's a good fellow, a good citizen, a good man," Hekmati said. "These are all unfounded allegations and a bunch of lies." full article
Seriously Iran's government is turning into Somali pirates, get the guy, hold him for ransom. It may be time to start putting bounties out on their leadership, see how they like it. DD
Then maybe an open and fair trial would have been available. The problem is that Iran has a joke of a government, an oppressive one that hides behind religion as some sort of "Right of way". The Iranian people deserve better, if any country needs an Arab/Persian spring, it is that one. DD
Yeah dumbass, they don't have a vote so how could we know? although I get your point. Throughout history people rarely choose freedom over oppression.
Out of curiosity, what is US policy when they capture alleged spies for hostile countries? I'm guessing they don't hold an open trial, but perhaps I'm wrong.
They've done this dozens (hundreds?) of times, Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen - all the way back to the Rosenbergs. Espionage is a crime like anything else.
Because until God can be called as a witness, it can't be a crime against God. It can be a crime against man's best guess as to what God wants....but that should not be punishable by death. DD
So unless the victim is able to testify you don't believe a crime can be charged? Interesting... Now this is a great point. It's ridiculous how Iran justifies declaring people enemy combatants without a trial and how their legislative body has written laws to allow them to hold these people indefinitely without trial! If only the people of Iran would overthrow their government and put in an American style justice system.