American accused of spying in Iran<\/cite><\/div>\nHekmati was arrested in August while visiting his grandmother and other relatives, his family in Michigan said last month.<\/p>\n
The Hekmatis said their son served in the Marines from 2001 to 2005. Later, he started his own linguistics company and contracted his services to the military as well as civilian businesses.<\/p>\n
His military contracts included cultural competency training. He worked with troops at military bases to promote understanding and positive communication with people of other cultures, his family said.<\/p>\n
Fars reported that Hekmati said he worked for the U.S. Army for four years and later the CIA, where he was sent to Afghanistan and had access to secret documents.<\/p>\n
Fars also reported that Hekmati told a judge he worked for the CIA and that he was to be paid for delivering information to Iran’s intelligence ministry.<\/p>\n
He was supposed to give his information to the Iranians in two parts — the first part for free, and if they liked it, he would ask for $500,000 for the second part, the news agency said.<\/p>\n
Hekmati said he was to get a receipt from the intelligence ministry for the money, Fars reported. The judge speculated whether the receipt would later be used as evidence linking Iran to terrorist activities, the news agency said.<\/p>\n
If Iran had paid, Hekmati told the judge, he would have kept the money and lived in Iran, according to Fars.<\/p>\n
Iran’s notorious secretive trials have been assailed by human rights groups and governments around the globe.<\/p>\n
The U.S. State Department’s annual human rights report on Iran says the court system is, in practice “corrupt and subject to political influence.” And while the country’s constitution provides defendants the right to a public trial, presumption of innocence, and a lawyer of his or her choice, “These rights were not respected in practice.”<\/p>\n
Hekmati’s sentencing comes amid tensions between Iran and the United States. The U.S. government and other Western nations have sanctioned Tehran over its failure to cooperate on nuclear issues.<\/p>\n
Hekmati is the latest in a series of Americans to face arrest in the country in recent years.<\/p>\n
Three U.S. hikers, also accused of spying, were arrested in 2009 and ultimately released. Sarah Shourd was freed on medical grounds in 2010; Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer were freed in September 2011.<\/p>\n
Journalist Roxana Saberi was arrested in January 2009 and convicted of espionage in a one-day trial that was closed to the public. She was freed in May that year.<\/p>\n
Reza Taghavi, an Iranian-American retired businessman, was freed by Iran in 2010 after being held more than two years on suspicion of supporting an anti-regime group, his lawyer said.<\/p>\n
Iranian-American Kian Tajbakhsh was among many people arrested in July 2009, amid post-election protests and a massive government crackdown. Exactly what he was convicted of was not clear. In March the next year, he was allowed temporary release within the country to celebrate the Persian New Year. That temporary release was later extended, according to the website freekian09.org, which works for his release.<\/p>\n
Source CNN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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