Ex-US Marine imprisoned in Iran seeks retrial

Amir Hekmati, a dual US-Iranian citizen born in Arizona, was arrested for espionage in 2011

Former US Marine Amir Hekmati, who is being held in a prison in Iran on charges of spying for the CIA (photo credit: AP/Hekmati family via FreeAmir.org)
Former US Marine Amir Hekmati, who is being held in a prison in Iran on charges of spying for the CIA (photo credit: AP/Hekmati family via FreeAmir.org)

TEHRAN — An Iranian news agency is reporting that a former US Marine convicted of working for the CIA has appealed for a new trial.

The Sunday report by the official ISNA news agency quotes Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei, a lawyer of Amir Hekmati, as saying the retrial request comes over a possible mistake by the judge in the case and the “inconsistency” between his alleged crime and its punishment.

Hekmati is a dual US-Iranian citizen born in Arizona who was arrested in 2011. In April, an Iranian appeals court overturned Hekmati’s death sentence for espionage after he appealed.

Another court instead found him guilty of “cooperating with hostile governments.”

His family, now in Michigan, says Hekmati is innocent and only went to Iran to visit his grandparents.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.

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