US citizen jailed in Iran asks conditional release

An Iranian-American former Marine, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati who is jailed in Iran has asked for conditional release, his lawyer, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei said.

Hekmati, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of working as an agent for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has spent three years in jail.

Alizadeh Tabatabaei said Hekmati has served one-third of his conviction period and deserves conditional freedom according to the Iranian laws, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported April 28.

Iranian laws say that if someone serves one-third of his conviction period and within that time, shows an acceptable behavior in jail, he can be entitled to conditional freedom.

Iran arrested Amir Hekmati in August 2011 while he was on a trip to visit his grandmothers in Tehran. He holds dual Iranian and US citizenship.

An Iranian court sentenced him to death after finding him guilty of espionage. However Iran's Supreme Court overturned the sentence in 2012.

Hekmati’s family and the US government have repeatedly said that he was not a spy and that his visit was for personal reasons.

/By Trend/