Amir Mirza Hekmati

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Amir Hekmati
File:Amir Mirza Hekmati USMC.png
Amir Hekmati
Birth name Amir Mirza Hekmati
Born (1983-07-28) July 28, 1983 (age 40)
Flagstaff, Arizona, U.S.
Allegiance  United States of America[1][2]
Service/branch  United States Marine Corps[1][2]
Years of service 2001-2005[N 1][2]
Rank USMC-E5.svg Sergeant[1][2]
Unit 1st Marine Division[2]
Battles/wars Iraq War[1][2]
Awards Combat Action Ribbon.svg Combat Action Ribbon[2]
Marine Corps Good Conduct ribbon.svg Good Conduct Medal[2]
National Defense Service Medal ribbon.svg National Defense Service Medal[2]
Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary ribbon.svg Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal[2]
Global War on Terrorism Service ribbon.svg Global War on Terrorism Service Medal[2]
Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.svg Sea Service Deployment Ribbon[2]
Relations Behnaz Hekmati (mother)[3]
Ali Hekmati (father)[4][5]
Sarah Hekmati (sister)[1]
Other work BAE Systems
Kuma Reality Games
Lucid Linguistics, LLC
Signature 100px
Website www.FreeAmir.org

Amir Mirza Hekmati (Persian: امیر میرزا حکمتی‎‎) (born July 28, 1983) is a former United States Marine who was arrested in August 2011 for allegedly spying for the CIA in Iran. On 9 January 2012, he was sentenced to death for the charges.[6][7][8] On 5 March 2012, the Iranian Supreme Court overturned the death sentence and ordered a retrial, saying the verdict against Hekmati was "not complete".[9][10] On January 16, 2016, Hekmati was released and allowed to leave Iran as part of a prisoner trade between the U.S. and Iran.[11]

Early life and education

Hekmati was born in Flagstaff, Arizona, on July 27, 1983; he has a twin sister, Leila.[12][13] Hekmati's parents, Ali and Behnaz Hekmati, left Iran in 1979 during the Iranian Revolution and settled in Arizona, where Ali Hekmati finished a Ph.D. in microbiology.[13]

The family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska and spent several years there before moving to Michigan, where Hekmati's father accepted a position as professor of microbiology at Mott Community College in Flint.[13][4][5] The family lived in Flint and later Flint Township.[13]

Hekmati attended Carman-Ainsworth High School before transferring to Flint Central High School for his last two years of high school; he graduated in 2001.[13] In August 2001, Hekmati enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps.[13][14]

Career

File:Amir Hekmati DD Form 2 Reserve ID Card.png
Hekmati's DD Form 2 reserve identification card.

Hekmati served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 20 August 2001 to 19 August 2005, when he was discharged as a sergeant.[5][1][2] Hekmati completed recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, followed by the School of Infantry at Camp Pendleton, California, where he trained as a rifleman.[13] He was awarded the Combat Action Ribbon while deployed as a rifleman and translator in Iraq, but he received no military intelligence training.[15][14]

After his discharge, Hekmati founded Lucid Linguistics LLC in February 2006 and worked as a military contractor translating Arabic and Persian. Hekmati partnered with Vcom3d to develop the Vcommunicator Mobile, a highly successful language learning app that is used by the Department of Defense. Hekmati entered into a licensing deal with Vcom3d worth $500,000. Hekmati later was awarded a $100,000 SBIR (Small Business Innovative Research) grant to co-develop technology with Kuma Reality Games.[16][17] Between 2005 and 2007 he is alleged to have worked on a report on two-way translation systems published by Mitre Corporation for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).[14][18] He is cited in the "Acknowledgements" section of Applying Automated Metrics to Speech Translation Dialogs, a paper published by Mitre Corporation.[19][20] He was later employed by Kuma Reality Games to work on a language-learning video game for the United States Department of Defense.[21]

Between March and September 2010 Hekmati worked in Kansas for BAE Systems, a multinational defense contractor.[22][23] Hekmati worked in Iraq between September 2010 and May 2011 as a culture and language expert.[16][24] According to his parents, Ali and Behnaz Hekmati of Flint, Michigan, Hekmati travelled to Iran after obtaining permission from the Iranian Interests Section of the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, D.C.[25][26]

Espionage arrest and trial

In August 2011, Hekmati was arrested while visiting his grandmother and other relatives in Iran, 3 weeks after his entry into the country.[25] Hekmati allegedly entered Iran from Bagram Airfield via Dubai.[27] On 18 December 2011, 4 months after his arrest during which he was subjected to torture and solitary confinment< ref http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/11/politics/amir-hekmati-sues-iran-alleged-torture/) a confession by Hekmati appeared on Iranian state television and stated that he had infiltrated Iran in order to establish a CIA presence in the country.[28] Hekmati's family said that the confession was coerced,[25] and that he was not a spy.[2] The family is represented by a U.S. Attorney former Ambassador at Large Pierre-Richard Prosper.[29][30]

Iran alleges that Hekmati's mission was to implicate the country in state-sponsored terrorist activities.[6] On 24 December 2011, Switzerland, which manages diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States, applied for consular access to Hekmati. It was denied.[31] In his confession, Hekmati stated that his mission pertained to maintaining a presence, rather than undermining the integrity of the country.[32] According to excerpts from his alleged confession published in the Tehran Times, Hekmati said that Kuma Reality Games was paid by the CIA to design movies and video games to give the customers a distasteful impression of the Middle East.[33]

Iranian officials claim that Hekmati underwent intelligence training after joining the U.S. military in 2001. However, US Military records show that he had no such training.[7] They say he worked for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency between 2005 and 2007. Shortly before his mission to Iran, they claim he prepared at Bagram Airfield. An Iranian official attributed his recognition and capture to "Iranian networks monitoring activities in the Bagram base".

Hekmati has an Iranian lawyer who has been publicly identified only by the surname Samadi.[34] On 9 January 2012, Iran's Revolutionary Court declared Hekmati to be "Corrupt on Earth (Mofsed-e-filarz) and Mohareb" (English: an enemy of God). It sentenced him to death for cooperating with the United States.[6] Hekmati later retained a prominent lawyer and advisor to Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani who went public in Iran stating that his client, Mr. Hekmati was being held under false pretenses and had committed no crime after reviewing his file in Irans revolutionary court and the lack of evidence against him. </ref> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/19/world/middleeast/former-marine-in-tehran-jail-hires-a-noted-iranian-lawyer.html?_r=0

Death sentence annulled

On 5 March 2012, Iran’s Supreme Court overturned the death sentence and ordered a retrial. The judges said the verdict against Hekmati was "not complete" and ordering a retrial.[9][35] Hekmati awaited a retrial[10] until April 2014, when his sister announced that a secret court had again convicted him of "practical collaboration with the U.S. government" and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.[36]

Calls for release

President Barack Obama repeatedly called upon Iran to release Hekmati as well as other U.S. citizens that were held prisoner, such as Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini.[37][38]

On May 11, 2015, the United States Senate unanimously passed, 90-0, a resolution calling upon the Iranian government to immediately release Hekmati, Abedini, and Rezaian, and to cooperate with the U.S. government to locate and return Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent reported missing in Iran. The resolution also called upon the U.S. government to undertake every effort using every diplomatic tool at its disposal to secure their release.[39]

Release

On January 16, 2016, Hekmati was released from Iran along with three other U.S. nationals held prisoner in Iran—Jason Rezaian, Saeed Abedini, and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari—as part of an agreement between the U.S. and Iran. A fifth man, a recently detained student named Matthew Trevithick, was separately released.[40]

After being freed, Hekmati departed Iran and traveled to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a U.S. military hospital in Germany, where he underwent a medical evaluation. Hekmati returned to his family in Flint, Michigan on January 21, 2016. [41]

Awards and decorations

1st Row
Combat Action Ribbon[2]
Good Conduct Medal[2]
National Defense Service Medal[2]
2nd Row
Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal[2]
Global War on Terrorism Service Medal[2]
Sea Service Deployment Ribbon[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ According to his official U.S. Marine Corps service record, Hekmati served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 20 August 2001 to 19 August 2005.
  2. ↑ According to his official U.S. Marine Corps service record, Hekmati served in Operation Iraqi Freedom from 1 April 2004 to 25 September 2004.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. mirror
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. mirror
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. mirror
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/16/middleeast/iran-jason-rezaian-prisoners-freed/index.html
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 Blake Thorne, The man who disappeared: Life before prison for captured Marine and Flint man Amir Hekmati, MLive (May 18, 2014).
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 Death row American's lawyer calls for compassion from Iran By Bryony Jones, CNN | 10 January 2012
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. mirror
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. mirror
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. mirror
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. mirror
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ David Jackson, Obama calls on Iran to release U.S. citizens, USA Today (March 20, 2015).
  38. ↑ Obama calls on Iran to release 'unjustly detained' Americans, Guardian (July 21, 2015). See also President Obama Calls for the Release of Amir Hekmati and Other Americans Held in Iran, C-SPAN (video of July 21, 2015 speech to Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention).
  39. ↑ Senate Calls on Iran to Release U.S. Citizens, United States Institute of Peace (May 11, 2015).
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ Amir Hekmati arrives at Flint's Bishop Airport WJRT-TV, January 21, 2016

External links

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