In a surprising development, the Iranian judicial authorities last week permitted a well-known Muslim cleric from the United States to visit with Amir Hekmati, a Marine veteran who is the longest-held American prisoner in Iran.
The granting of such a visit suggested that Hekmati, 32, might be near an end to his incarceration, which began more than four years ago when he was visiting his Iranian grandmother for the first time and was seized by security agents who accused him of espionage.
Ordinarily, Iran permits only immediate relatives to visit prisoners.
The cleric, Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi, the spiritual leader of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, knows Hekmati’s family in Flint. He said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that he had been able to arrange the visit while attending a religious conference in Iran.
Not knowing whether the visit would be permitted, he did not tell Hekmati’s relatives in the United States in advance, he said, to avoid disappointing them if his request was rejected.
“I was very fortunate,” the imam said, explaining that partly through luck and happenstance, he had spoken with judiciary officials who were able to arrange a meeting with Hekmati in Evin Prison in Tehran on August 25.
“He had been told, ‘Someone was going to visit you,’ but he didn’t know who,” the imam said. “It was supposed to be for a half-hour. We spoke for 55 minutes, just him and I in one room.”
Just before he entered the prison visiting area, the imam telephoned Hekmati’s parents, awakening his mother, Baz. “She was speechless, she didn’t know what to say, except to just kiss him and hug him,” the imam said.
A Hekmati family representative confirmed the meeting.
The imam did not go into detail about the conversation but described Hekmati as resilient and energised. “The talks got emotional — it’s very natural to tear up, but then he was strong enough to overcome his emotion and keep talking about positive things,” the imam said.
Elahi said he returned to Michigan a few days later and felt “more optimistic than ever about his case.”
Hekmati’s family has been increasingly outspoken in its calls for Iran to release him. The family also has publicised Hekmati’s accounts of torture, mistreatment and poor conditions in the Iranian penal system, including vermin-infested cells.
His original espionage conviction and death sentence were reduced to charges of helping a hostile country, which carried a punishment of 10 years in prison.
Hekmati has denied all wrongdoing and described himself as a political prisoner and a victim of the animosity between Iran and the United States.
His congressman, Rep. Dan Kildee, a Democrat, was the lead sponsor of a resolution in Congress calling on Iran to free Hekmati and two other Americans held in Iran, and to provide information about a fourth who has been missing for eight years. The resolution passed unanimously.
Expectations have been building since the international agreement on Iran’s nuclear activities was reached in July that Hekmati and the other American prisoners would be released.
Iranian officials have hinted at the possibility of a prisoner exchange. Last week the Foreign Ministry said the United States was unfairly holding 19 Iranian citizens on accusations of having violated US economic sanctions.
US officials have not commented on the Foreign Ministry’s assertion but have said that there have been no discussions on a prisoner exchange.
Besides Hekmati, Iran is holding Jason Rezaian, 39, the Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent, who is from Marin, California; and Saeed Abedini, 35, a Christian pastor from Boise, Idaho.
Rezaian has spent more than 13 months in prison on charges that include espionage and hostile acts, which he and the newspaper have called baseless. A verdict in his case, which carries a punishment of as much as 20 years in prison, has been expected for the past few weeks.
Abedini was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2013 on charges of subverting national security by holding Bible classes in private homes. He has also said that he is innocent.
A fourth American, Robert A. Levinson, 67, a retired FBI agent from southern Florida, has been missing in Iran since 2007.
— New York Times News Service
