Iran sentences US man to death for spying
Iran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced an American to death for spying for the CIA, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Monday.
“Amir Mirza Hekmati was sentenced to death … for cooperating with the hostile country (the United States) and spying for the CIA,” Fars said, without giving a source.
“The court found him Corrupt on Earth and Mohareb (waging war on God),” it added.
Last week, Hekmati’s family said he was not getting adequate legal representation.
In a statement, they said that his “only advocate in Iran is a government-appointed lawyer who he first met on the day of his trial.”
“We have struggled to provide Amir with an attorney in Iran,” the family wrote in the statement. “We have sought to hire at least 10 different attorneys in Tehran to no avail.”
The Fars report Monday did not say when the verdict was issued. Under Iranian law, he has 20 days to appeal.
Hekmati’s family said the former U.S. military translator was visiting his grandmothers.
Hekmati, 28, was born in Arizona and graduated from a Michigan high school. His father Ali is a professor at a community college in Flint, Michigan.