CAIRO: Duel American and Iranian citizen Amir-Mirza Hekmati was sentenced to death for his alleged dealings with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Iran's official Fars news agency reported on Monday. Hekmati, arrested last month on espionage charges, was given the execution order for his reported “cooperation with a country hostile to Iran, affiliation to the CIA and efforts to link Iran to terrorism,” Fars quoted the revolutionary court as saying. A former US defense official in Cairo, speaking to Bikyamasr.com on condition of anonymity, said that the ruling was “expected,” and that Washington is “unlikely” to do much in public to have the man freed. “I don't know if Hekmati was part of the CIA, but the reality facing his future and life largely depends on whether human rights groups and activists put pressure on Tehran to have him released,” the former official said. “Right now, I don't see it.” Hekmati's father, Ali Hekmati, who lives in Detroit, said his son was just in Iran to visit relatives and was detained in September. Tehran disclosed the arrest in mid-December. The father further denied that his son was working for the CIA. The US State Department called on the Iranian government to allow Hekmati to get consular assistance via the Swiss embassy, which represents US interests in Tehran, as the countries have no diplomatic relations, and release him without delay. The man said last week on state television in Persian that he was a CIA agent and trained in military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq before being dispatched to Iran to infiltrate Iranian secret service. He was supposed to win the trust of the Iranian secret service with classified CIA intelligence data, he said. Iran frequently announces the arrest of spies and espionage rings linked to the US or Israel – and on several occasions has also played video confessions by the alleged spies – but without presenting any evidence. ** With dpa information BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/WWY8q Tags: Amir-Mirza Hekmati, CIA, Death, featured Section: Iran, Latest News
