U.S. Marine Veteran Amir Hekmati Held Hostage for 4 Years in Iran

August 31, 2015

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August 31, 2015
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U.S. Marine Veteran Amir Hekmati Held Hostage for 4 Years in Iran
UANI Ad Campaign Calls for U.S. to "Leave No Man Behind"

Saturday, August 29 marked the fourth anniversary of Iran's detention of U.S. Marine veteran Amir Hekmati. Hekmati is one of four Americans, including Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, Pastor Saeed Abedini, and former FBI agent Robert Levinson, held hostage by Iran. The United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) ad "Leave No Man Behind," part of UANI's national campaign to educate Americans on the fundamental defects of the Iran nuclear agreement, highlights the  failure to secure the release of these four Americans.

In prison, Hekmati has reportedly been tasered during interrogations, whipped on his feet with cables, and force-fed drugs such as lithium. According to reports he was held in solitary confinement for 17 consecutive months and placed in painful stress positions for extended periods. Prison officials have also subjected Hekmati to sleep deprivation and psychological torture. His guards have tormented him by, for example, falsely informing him that his mother had died in a car accident. In protest of his treatment and imprisonment, he has engaged in multiple hunger strikes.

Hekmati, a former U.S. marine from Michigan who served in Iraq, was arrested on August 29, 2011 while on his first trip to Iran to visit his ailing grandmother. In January 2012, "Iran's Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death and aired a televised confession in which he claimed to be a spy for the CIA." However, "after international outcry, in March 2012 Iran's Supreme Court overturned his death sentence and ordered a retrial." In a letter he wrote that was smuggled out of his prison cell in September 2013, Hekmati said, "This is part of a propaganda and hostage-taking effort by Iranian intelligence to secure the release of Iranians abroad being held on security-related charges." In April 2014, the New York Times reported that Hekmati "was secretly retried by a revolutionary court in December [2013], convicted of 'practical collaboration with the American government' and given a 10-year prison term."

Click here to read more about Iran's American hostages.
Click here to view the UANI ad "Leave No Man Behind."

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