“Amir Needs Your Help”

April 21, 2015

 

To:

Hon. John Boehner, Speaker of the House

Hon. Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader

Hon. Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader

Hon. Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader

Hon. Ed Royce, Chairman, House Foreign Affairs

Hon. Eliot Engel, Ranking Member, House Foreign

Hon. Bob Corker, Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations

Hon. Benjamin Cardin, Ranking Member, Senate Foreign Relations

 

Dear Congressional Leaders,

Please find attached an important letter dictated by my brother, Amir Hekmati, an American citizen and proud veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, who has been wrongly held as a political prisoner in Iran’s most notorious prison for more than 1,300 days.

Amir is being held hostage by the regime in Tehran as leverage. He needs your help. He has been systematically tortured, denied Consular access, as provided for by Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the bilateral Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations and Consular Rights to which both Iran and the United States are parties.

I write on behalf of Amir, my father, who is battling terminal cancer, my mother, and our entire family to focus congressional attention to free Amir and to urge all members to join the strong bipartisan effort to secure my brother’s release, which is being led by our Congressman, Rep. Dan Kildee.

As Americans of Iranian origin, we fully understand the need for a diplomatic solution with Iran. That said, the reality is Iran that has deliberately ignored some of the most basic obligations required of the community of nations in its handling of Amir’s case and it is our view that Iran should be pressed to prove the sincerity of its professed desire to rejoin the international community by at a bare minimum honoring its existing commitments under international law as follows:

• Immediately permit the Swiss Ambassador unfettered, in person access to Amir as provided by Article 36 of the Vienna Convention and the bilateral agreement between the United States and Iran.

• Immediately grant the ICRC unfettered access to Amir. We have serious, ongoing concerns about his health. Alternatively, we would be satisfied if Iran granted access to a U.N. credentialed physician or a physician of the Swiss Ambassador’s choice with the Ambassador present.

• Allow him a weekend furlough to visit his ailing grandmother in Tehran.

• We ask that in the event that Iran does not accede to these requests, that the State Department direct the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, as protecting power, to lodge a formal protest with the Iranian Government.

After three and a half years, clearly greater and additional action is needed. We also would respectfully ask all Members to respect our family’s desire that Amir’s case not become a domestic U.S. partisan political football. To that end, we will be forever grateful to Rep. Kildee and his staff for the strong, bipartisan support he has garnered in support of Amir’s freedom.

I’d invite you all to have your staffs learn more about Amir’s case and situation by going to http://www.freeamir.org.

I’ll end where we began – my brother proudly served his country and we now feel totally helpless and without adequate support from the Administration in securing his return. We are deeply concerned for his safety and for his health. We implore the Congress to do everything it can to press for Amir’s immediate release.

 

Very Truly Yours,

Sarah Hekmati

 

CC:

The Hon. Ileana Ros-Letinen

Chairwoman

House Foreign Affairs Committee

Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa

 

The Hon. Ted Deutch

Ranking Member

House Foreign Affairs Committee

Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa

 

The Hon. Jim Risch

Chairman

Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism

 

The Hon. Christopher Murphy

Ranking Member

Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism