The news coverage of the court’s decision was garbled, however, with slightly different quotes being used by different news agencies to report what Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossain Mohseni-Ejai announced.
Persian news reports often confuse the verdict of guilty or innocent with the sentence imposed. In this Mohsenti-Ejai was unclear.
Most Iranian news outlets said the Supreme Court overturned the death sentence meted out to Hekmati. But others seemed to suggest the court overturned he guilty verdict.
All news reports agreed that the case was remanded to a lower court for re-consideration. That probably means a new trial, but a clarification of the Supreme Court action is needed.
If only the sentence was reversed, Hekmati could still face a life sentence for espionage.
The Islamic Students News Agency quoted Mohseni-Ejai as saying, “There was an objection to the ruling in the Supreme Court and the court found fault with it and sent it to another branch with the same level of authority.” That was vague and imprecise. It left unclear whether the “ruling” with which the court found fault was the verdict or the sentence. And it failed to make clear what the “branch” to which the case has now been sent was supposed to do—re-try the case or review the sentence or something else.
Hekmati, 28, is a former Marine who was born in Arizona to parents who had immigrated from Iran. His father teaches at a community college in Flint, Michigan.
Hekmati was sentenced to death January 9 by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran for “cooperating with a hostile nation, employment by the CIA and trying to implicate Iran in terrorism,” according to the Iranian media. He was also convicted of “corruption against God,” a crime for which death is the penalty.
Although Hekmati was born in the United States, Iran considers him to be an Iranian only. It has not allowed the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which represents the United States, to meet with him.
Hekmati was shown on Iranian state television in December allegedly confessing that he was an operative for the Central Intelligence Agency sent to infiltrate Iran’s intelligence ministry. But there were many holes in the television program. The main parts of the “confession” were read by an announcer and Hekmati was not shown voicing those parts.
In one part of the broadcast, Hekmati was shown speaking in English and saying he was trained as a Marine infantryman, but the translation that followed said he had stated he was sent to intelligence training.
In another part of the broadcast, the announcer said Hekmati confessed to working for the “US spy agency DARPA.” DARPA stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and is a world-famous technology office. A co-worker said Hekmati once worked on a contract for DARPA trying to develop an electronic translation tool for troops in Iraq.
Hekmati’s family in Michigan told US media he had traveled to Iran to visit his grandmothers and was not a spy. It was his first time in Iran. His family said relatives tried to discourage him from going there.
In his sole trial hearing December 27, prosecutors relied on Hekmati’s “confession” to say he tried to penetrate the intelligence ministry by posing as a disaffected former US soldier with classified information to give.
The White House has flatly denied that Hekmati ever worked for any US intelligence agency or was sent to infiltrate the Iranian Intelligence Ministry.
Iran has detained a number of Americans accused of spying, although there is no precedent for a death sentence being carried out against an American.