Iran Improves Prison Conditions for Former US Marine

Last week the family of Amir Hekmati, the American marine of Iranian descent who has been imprisoned in Iran since August 2011, marked the third anniversary of his incarceration.

The Hekmati family plans to travel to New York later in September and will seek to meet Iranian officials from the delegation of President Hassan Rouhani during his visit for the United Nations General Assembly. Hekmati’s fate remains an area of friction between Iran and the United States, which has been unable to secure his release despite progress with the Islamic Republic over the ongoing nuclear negotiations and some degree of overlapping military response to Islamic State militants in Iraq.

Hekmati returned in Iran in 2011 to visit his elderly grandmother, and had been assured by Iranian officials before travelling that his past military background would prove no problem while inside the country. But just days into his visit he was arrested and charged with espionage, later sentenced to death in a secret trial, and then re-tried again on lesser charges of collaboration with the United States, receiving a reduced sentence of 10 years' imprisonment.

His family, based in Michigan, say that recent developments around his case are grounds for cautious optimism. His sister, Sarah Hekmati, says that his conditions in prison have improved, with Amir being moved from Evin Prison’s high-security Ward 350 for political prisoners to Ward 7, where he is now allowed regular phone calls and access to books the family sends through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which oversees American interests in Tehran in the absence of diplomatic relations.

“We’re grateful these conditions have improved,” said Sarah Hekmati. “We know certain judicial proceedings may have advanced with regard to his case and we pray that this will lead to a release or furlough.”

Sarah Hekmati said that when Amir spoke with their mother a few weeks ago, “all of his concern was about our father’s health.” Ali Hekmati, a microbiology professor in Michigan, has terminal brain cancer, and is fearful of not seeing Amir released before his death.

Earlier this year, the prominent and well-connected Tehran lawyer, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabei, agreed to represent Amir. Tabatabei has said in public comments that he may simply petition for Hekmati’s release under a provision in Iranian allow that allows prisoners in some cases to be released after serving three years of their sentence. This proviso has allowed the early release of numerous prisoners of conscience without retrial.

In August Tabatabaei said in remarks published by the website Kalame that Hekmati’s file was making the rounds throughout the country’s judicial system, and that he was waiting for the Supreme Court to convene a re-trial. “He has told [us] he is going to pursue every option, and see which the judiciary accepts fastest,” Sarah Hekmati said.

Read Amir Hekmati's letter from prison, published earlier this year.