Suspected CIA spy Amir Mirzai Hekmati has been sentenced to death in Iran. Iranian Fars media announced that the US born man of Iranian descent has been sentenced to death by a court in Tehran. Hekmati was convicted of “co-operating with a hostile nation, membership of the CIA and trying to implicate Iran in terrorism”. Originally, the US has said that they are “not sure” if the accusations against the man are true. But added that if he is innocent, then they strongly condemned the verdict.

Iranian officials say that Hekmati was trained by the CIA in Afghanistan and Iraq, his current mission they say was to collect intelligence on Iran. They said his cover was blown before he even entered the country, supposedly spotted by Iranian agents in the US-run Bagram military base in Afghanistan. On December 18 he was shown on state television “confessing to being part of a plot to infiltrate Iran’s intelligence services for the CIA.”

Now US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland is giving a different message:

“Allegations that Mr Hekmati either worked for, or was sent to Iran by the CIA are simply untrue…

The Iranian regime has a history of falsely accusing people of being spies, of eliciting forced confessions, and of holding innocent Americans for political reasons.”

According to the US Hekmati does hold a US passport and is said to be a former marine. They added that he should be released immediately. Although a request is unlikely to be granted given the ongoing hostility the US has been perpetuating towards Iran. Hekmati’s parents maintain that he was in Iran visiting family for the first time.