Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, Former U.S. Marine, Sentenced To Death In Iran

[High_Gravity]

Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, Former U.S. Marine, Sentenced To Death In Iran

TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian court has convicted an American man of working for the CIA and sentenced him to death, state radio reported Monday, in a case adding to the accelerating tension between the United States and Iran.

Iran charges that as a former U.S. Marine, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, received special training and served at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan before heading to Iran for his alleged intelligence mission. The radio report did not say when the verdict was issued.

The 28-year-old former military translator was born in Arizona and graduated from high school in Michigan. His family is of Iranian origin. His father, a professor at a community college in Flint, Michigan, has said his son is not a CIA spy and was visiting his grandmothers in Iran when he was arrested.

Behnaz Hekmati, his mother, said in an email to The Associated Press that she and her husband, Ali, are "shocked and terrified" that their son has been sentenced to death. She said the verdict is "the result of a process that was neither transparent nor fair."

Under Iranian law, he has 20 days to appeal. Hekmati has a court-appointed lawyer who was identified only by his surname, Samadi, and there was no word about an appeal.

Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehei, spokesman for Iran's judiciary said if the verdict is appealed, it would go to Iran's Supreme Court, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Hekmati's trial took place as the U.S. announced new, tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, which Washington believes Tehran is using to develop a possible atomic weapons capability.

Iran, which says it only seeks nuclear reactors for energy and research, has sharply increased its threats and military posturing against stronger pressures, including the U.S. sanctions targeting Iran's Central Bank in attempts to complicate its ability to sell oil.

The U.S. State Department has demanded Hekmati's release.

The court convicted him of working with a hostile country, belonging to the CIA and trying to accuse Iran of involvement in terrorism, Monday's report said.

Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, Former U.S. Marine, Sentenced To Death In Iran

 

[The Infidel]

'The U.S. State Department has demanded Hekmati's release.'



Ewwww.... I bet the Iranians are really askeered

 

[Crackerjack]

Well this sucks.

Is it worth ratcheting down sanctions to spare the life of one American?

 

[High_Gravity]

Well this sucks.

Is it worth ratcheting down sanctions to spare the life of one American?

I don't get why we Americans insist on going to to travel to hostile countries where Americans are despised and hated, like Pakistan, Iran, North Korea etc etc I know the guy went to visit his grandmother over there but with tensions the way they are between the US and Iran, I wouldn't put my life in danger to visit a grand parent. I swear sometimes we Americans are so niaeve and deserve what we get in instances like this.

 

[Crackerjack]

Well this sucks.

Is it worth ratcheting down sanctions to spare the life of one American?

I don't get why we Americans insist on going to to travel to hostile countries where Americans are despised and hated, like Pakistan, Iran, North Korea etc etc I know the guy went to visit his grandmother over there but with tensions the way they are between the US and Iran, I wouldn't put my life in danger to visit a grand parent. I swear sometimes we Americans are so niaeve and deserve what we get in instances like this.

I guess he thought he could blend in. The thing of it is, with a lot of ethnicities it's easy to tell who was born and raised in the US and who was born and raised in the old country just by looking at them. Koreans and Chinese are easy to spot -- the ones born and raised here are taller and thicker (both in muscle and fat). I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same for Persians.

Plus, it isn't hard to spot someone who is in or was recently separated from the Marines, either. Probably all the Iranians had to do is see him step off the plane from the States and do a little checking around in his grandparents' neighborhood to figure out he's a leatherneck.

 

[High_Gravity]

Well this sucks.

Is it worth ratcheting down sanctions to spare the life of one American?

I don't get why we Americans insist on going to to travel to hostile countries where Americans are despised and hated, like Pakistan, Iran, North Korea etc etc I know the guy went to visit his grandmother over there but with tensions the way they are between the US and Iran, I wouldn't put my life in danger to visit a grand parent. I swear sometimes we Americans are so niaeve and deserve what we get in instances like this.

I guess he thought he could blend in. The thing of it is, with a lot of ethnicities it's easy to tell who was born and raised in the US and who was born and raised in the old country just by looking at them. Koreans and Chinese are easy to spot -- the ones born and raised here are taller and thicker (both in muscle and fat). I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same for Persians.

Plus, it isn't hard to spot someone who is in or was recently separated from the Marines, either. Probably all the Iranians had to do is see him step off the plane from the States and do a little checking around in his grandparents' neighborhood to figure out he's a leatherneck.

The Iranians have been harassing and arresting Iranian-Americans for a while now, the Iranians probably knew this clown was gonna be there before his plane even hit the ground, the fact that this guy lived in America his whole life made him a pretty juicy target, his Marine Background made him too hard to resist.

 

[Warrior102]

Well this sucks.

Is it worth ratcheting down sanctions to spare the life of one American?

I don't get why we Americans insist on going to to travel to hostile countries where Americans are despised and hated, like Pakistan, Iran, North Korea etc etc I know the guy went to visit his grandmother over there but with tensions the way they are between the US and Iran, I wouldn't put my life in danger to visit a grand parent. I swear sometimes we Americans are so niaeve and deserve what we get in instances like this.

I thought the same thing this morning when I read this in the paper

 

[High_Gravity]

Well this sucks.

Is it worth ratcheting down sanctions to spare the life of one American?

I don't get why we Americans insist on going to to travel to hostile countries where Americans are despised and hated, like Pakistan, Iran, North Korea etc etc I know the guy went to visit his grandmother over there but with tensions the way they are between the US and Iran, I wouldn't put my life in danger to visit a grand parent. I swear sometimes we Americans are so niaeve and deserve what we get in instances like this.

I thought the same thing this morning when I read this in the paper

There are alot of us Yankees who are very niaeve and ignorant when it comes to world affairs, people like the 3 hikers who got caught on the Iranian border come to mind, as well as the journalists who crossed into North Korea and Bill Clinton had to go down there to pardon them. I always thought people with a prior Military background would be smarter than this, but this guy proved me wrong. Its like some American's don't believe what they see and hear on the news and think "I bet those Iranians and Pakistanis aren't as bad as our evil media paints them out to be, I am going to go over there and see for myself what they are really like" and than bullshit like this happens, and than the US Government has to bend over backwards to bail these dumb fucks out.

 

[JStone]

Didn't the US save a bunch of iranians from the somali pirates? No good deed goes unpunished

 

[justathought]

If they want to give the death penalty to a real CIA agent, they should blow the drone up. No agent is stupid enough to go into Iran with a known military background.

 

[justathought]

We should make sure he didn't infiltrate our military. What American in their right mind would goto Iran. Only someone who felt safe, possibly a spy for the Iranians. I don't trust anyone who can speak multiple languages.

 

[Crackerjack]

We should make sure he didn't infiltrate our military. What American in their right mind would goto Iran. Only someone who felt safe, possibly a spy for the Iranians. I don't trust anyone who can speak multiple languages.

I'm going to work off the assumption that this was sarcasm.

 

[Truthseeker420]

Didn't the US save a bunch of iranians from the somali pirates? No good deed goes unpunished

Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, two Americans captured and held by Iran since 2009, had an interesting point to make at their news conference yesterday in New York (via Think Progress):


According to Bauer and Fattal, Iranian prison guards repeatedly used the harsh conditions of Guantanamo Bay and CIA prisons around the world to justify their own human rights violations:

BAUER: In prison, every time we complained about our conditions, the guards would immediately remind us of comparable conditions at Guantanamo Bay. They would remind us of CIA prisons in other parts of the world, and the conditions that Iranians and others experience in prisons in the U.S. We do not believe that such human rights violations on the part of our government justify what has been done to us. Not for a moment. However, we do believe that these actions on the part of the U.S. provide an excuse for other governments, including the government of Iran, to act in kind.

According to the hikers, extended solitary confinement “was the worst experience of all our lives.”

It was already a well-known fact that torture and inhumane treatment of detainees by the USA helps other governments try to justify similar acts. In violation of the U.S. Constitution and international treaties, the Obama administration continues to hold people indefinitely without any charges being brought against them, under conditions similar to the Iranian prison Bauer and Fattal experienced.

No doubt.

 

[JStone]

Just like the 3 hikers who claimed that they were students.

Most likely they were spies and so was he.

Of course we now hear a sob story about he was just going to see grandma.

What a bunch of malarky.

Nothing wrong with spying on islamonazis. I hope the US government has its eye on the terrorists in messageboards

 

[Zoom]

There is no such thing as a former marine. This may end very very badly.

 

[Zoom]

We should make sure he didn't infiltrate our military. What American in their right mind would goto Iran. Only someone who felt safe, possibly a spy for the Iranians. I don't trust anyone who can speak multiple languages.

Let me guess, you are a republican.




Dumb motherfucker.

 

[justathought]

We should make sure he didn't infiltrate our military. What American in their right mind would goto Iran. Only someone who felt safe, possibly a spy for the Iranians. I don't trust anyone who can speak multiple languages.

Let me guess, you are a republican.




Dumb motherfucker.

I ain't the one in Iran. Your boy is the dumb mother fucker. cool avatar though.

 

[Crackerjack]

We should make sure he didn't infiltrate our military. What American in their right mind would goto Iran. Only someone who felt safe, possibly a spy for the Iranians. I don't trust anyone who can speak multiple languages.

Let me guess, you are a republican.




Dumb motherfucker.

We're in Bircher territory here.

 

[justathought]

What is so dumb about asking why the fuck you are going to Iran if you are one of our marines? It's as you say, no such thing as a former marine, as is it no man left behind. Hope they understand who's property that body is and who will come for it.

 

[Crackerjack]

What is so dumb about asking why the fuck you are going to Iran if you are one of our marines?

Because it says why he went in the story.

It's as you say, no such thing as a former marine, as is it no man left behind. Hope they understand who's property that body is and who will come for it.

It means that they're part of a brotherhood, not because they're actually active duty.

I'm waiting to hear about why you don't trust people who speak multiple languages. That should be hilarious.