US-Iranian Man Sentenced To Death Over Espionage
Amir Mirzai Hekmati
An Iranian court sentenced Amir Mirzai Hekmati, a 28-year-old US-Iranian to death in a case of alleged espionage for CIA, a radio report revealed on Monday. The move comes at a time when ties with the United States are very tense because of the sanctions imposed on the Islamic country as a result of its nuclear program ambitions.
The state-run radio did not say when he was sentenced. According to Iranian law he has 20 days to appeal the sentence.
Hekmati was sentenced to death for espionage for a hostile nation, for being a CIA agent, and for attempting to involve Iran in terrorist activities. The sentence included the usual accusation of “corrupt on earth and mohareb (waging war on God),” which are usually given to all people who are accused of acting against the Islamic republic.
The man was arrested a few months ago, as Iranian agents saw him at the US military base in Bagram, Afghanistan. His capture became public last month, when, in a broadcast in the Iranian state-run television, he said, in both English and Farsi, that he was a CIA operative sent to infiltrate the Iranian intelligence ministry.
His family in the USA said that he traveled to Iran to visit his grandmother, and insisted that he was no spy. Hekmati went through a trial hearing only, on December 27, and the prosecution relied on his confession that he posed as a disaffected US soldier with classified information to give, and that in this capacity he tried to penetrate the intelligence ministry.
The United States demanded his immediate release, adding that he was allowed no legal representation from the Swiss embassy, which is handling American matters in Tehran.
On Sunday, the Iranian intelligence ministry announced the capture of other spies accused of attempting to disrupt parliamentary elections. They were said to have been in contact with abroad through cyberspace networks.
Tension between Iran and the United States escalated after the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report by which the regime in Tehran was advancing in its quest for nuclear weapons. Images were shown about computer simulations of such weapons.
The news was immediately dismissed by the Iranian authorities, but were taken very seriously by Israel, which demanded the US to help them attack the nuclear facilities in Iran.
As the US favored imposing sanctions rather than sending troops to Iran in an electoral year, Israel found another way to slow the Iranian down by staging a cybernetic attack on one of their military bases, causing one of the most important figures for the Iranian nuclear program to die.
Meanwhile, the United States, Britain and Canada imposed a series of economic sanctions on Iran. The UN Security Council was not required to do the same because it had already done that four times, and a fifth round seemed to gather little support, especially with Russia and China opposing.
When the central bank of Iran was targeted by the sanctions, placing those who do business with this country in the position to choose whom they want as a business partner, Iran or the US, Tehran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, while China said it was inappropriate for a country to impose its own law over other nation.
Even without the nuclear scandal, the tension between the two countries were simmering up after the assassination last summer of Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington, DC, a crime that was pinned on the Iranian Quds Forces, since the man who perpetrated it and was caught was of Iranian descent and had connections with this branch of the Iranian army.
The president of Iran dismissed these allegations as fabrications but the United States took the documents to the United Nations, demanding sanctions against Tehran.
