Mr. Rouhani, Please Release My Son!

Amir Hekmati, the American-born son of Iranian emigres, traveled to Iran in August 2011 to visit his elderly grandmother. Like most second-generation Iranians, he applied for an Iranian passport, scoffed at his parents' worried admonitions, and set off for Tehran with the excitement of a young man nurtured on love for his homeland. That Hekmati had been a U.S. Marine, his family felt, would not pose a problem, because he had fully disclosed his military work in his various passport applications, and the Iranian government had with that knowledge issued him travel and identification documents

Two weeks into his trip, however, Amir disappeared. His parents soon learned that authorities had detained him, but they heard nothing more until December of that year, when state television broadcast what they say is a coerced confession. In the video, Amir seemingly admits to having worked for the CIA in a plot against the Islamic Republic, and shortly after, a court sentence him to death. That verdict was later repealed, but Amir remains in prison and his legal case in limbo.

For the Hekmatis, the past two years have been an arduous, confusing journey. They feel themselves a normal family who has been caught up in a justice system with no accountability. Behnaz Hekmati, Amir's mother, is an accountant, and Ali Hekmati is a professor of microbiology at Mott Community College. Amir has an older sister and a twin sister, and trained at university as an Arabic linguist and later in global business management. After his years with the US Marine Coprs, which included a stint serving in Iraq, Amir founded a consulting company specializing in English-Persian-Arabic translation. To family friends, he is known as an entrepreneur, academically gifted, with a passion for travel, promoting cross-cultural understanding, reading poetry, and sports.

His family hopes that President Hassan Rouhani's visit to New York and the recent prisoner release in Tehran will bring attention to Amir's case. They have hired a prominent lawyer to pursue Amir's case at the diplomatic and regional level, and Rep. Dan Kildee, the family's congressman, has asked  UN Ambassador Samantha Power to use President Rouhani's New York visit as an opportunity to press for his release.  His mother, Behnaz Hekmati, spoke to IranWire about what her family has endured since her son's disappearance, and her hopes that President Rouhani's intentions of good will may bear fruit with Amir's release.

When was the last time you visited with Amir, have you been granted proper visitation access?

After Amir's arrest, I went to Iran three times. The first time was after they sentenced him to death. It was horrible. I went to Iran and saw that my son's face had completely changed. I couldn't recognize him at all. He had lost so much weight and he was so pale. He had grown a beard and they had shaved his hair. He walked funny. During the entire 15 minutes I was allowed to see him, all I did was to cry. He kept telling me, "Mom, don't believe these things, it's all nonsense. I haven't done anything. But they won't allow me to talk. I can't talk. Just know that I'm innocent."

Then we went another time when the Supreme Court had stated that this story didn't fit and they had rejected the ruling. They said more information was needed and this made us very happy. Amir himself said, “I knew I hadn't done anything to deserve this.” I had to go see Amir twice. I went once, but the next time they didn't allow me to see Amir. They said they were upset the ruling had not been upheld.

When was the last time you saw him?

The last time was last June when I went and saw him twice, once in person and another time from behind a window. He was better but he was still in solitary confinement. All he had were three blankets and he had no contact with the outside world. If he did see or read anything, it was very controlled. He was at a location where he saw daylight from a very small window. He was suffering a lot from this, because he is very sociable. It was very hard for him not to do anything and to just sit in a room. They never kept anyone in solitary confinement for this long. Sixteen months! Because they didn't want the truth to come out and for him not to be able to contact anyone, and not be able to defend himself. He had started a hunger strike. We didn't know this but learned later that he passed out and fell down. They found him and took him somewhere else for his mental state to improve, to see others, talk, walk, and go outside to see daylight. He was a young man who exercised for an hour everyday and used to have a strong physique like iron. Then came his father's illness. His father had a stroke. They learned later that he has cancer. We have been tied up with his father's situation and I haven't gone to Iran since last June.

Has Amir been granted access to a defense lawyer?

They won't allow anyone to handle Amir's case, because it was something they fabricated themselves, it was a story, a scenario. They wouldn't let anyone handle this case until they picked someone from amongst themselves. [The lawyer they finally appointed] told me, "I defended Amir, and all of this is a story, Amir is innocent, a simple young man who just came to Iran and doesn't know Iranians, doesn't know the society, he just got up and came for the love he had for his grandmother, for seeing Iran, to see his motherland. He came and became trapped. He got trapped in the politics of this country and that. He fell into a trap that has nothing to do with Amir. It makes no difference to them why he was arrested, they want something else of him. The real story is something else altogether. That hapless guy fell into this trap because of his naivety.”

Was Amir in contact with the Iranian Interests Section in Washington DC before traveling to Iran?

Yes, just like any other Iranian. Just like if I want to go to Iran, I would ask what kinds of documents I would have to fill out or write. Amir filled out all those forms and wrote what his job was, what his past was and what he has done and why he wanted to go to Iran. He wrote who his relatives were in Iran. All of this was written down. We even called ourselves and they said, "No problem, when we stamp his passport he can go to Iran, but he must come back in three months." We filled out all his documents and sent it there. They all knew why he was going, what his job was, what his education was, they knew everything about him. If there was a problem, why didn't they tell him not to go here?

So even though he documented on these official forms that he had served in the US military, that he had been a marine, the authorities issued him an Iranian passport for his trip?

Yes, this was all written. Amir got his Iranian passport through the Iranian Interests Section in Washington DC, and they put a stamp in it that said he could go to Iran. He even got a National ID Card. He went to Iran and nothing happened. I mean he arrived at the airport and went out with the family. He took his laptop. He said, "doesn't everyone go to Iran? Why shouldn’t I take my laptop with me? What are you afraid of?” Those who were born there, like my generation, are always in a state where we are afraid of everything, even our own shadows.

We are afraid of getting caught by the police or the Intelligence Ministry. Therefore we always advise our children to be careful, not to get entangled with anyone when going to Iran, to just go visit with the family and come back safely. Those pictures from his service years were his own photographs. I mean they fabricated an espionage story about him using the photos on his  laptop and his Facebook, and he was trapped like this. His lawyer said, "He is a very good guy, but because he hasn't been in Iran for many years, he does not know Iranians, nor Iranian politics. This is why he has fallen into a trap that has nothing to do with Amir and it's all about politics."

Did you see the letter published in newspapers on September 11, addressed to Secretary of State Kerry? Do you confirm and believe that Amir wrote it and that it's in Amir's handwriting?

Yes, this is Amir's handwriting. Amir has been there for more than two years now, and he has not been given any chance to speak. This is the only way he was able to find to say, to tell the people, to tell the Americans, "I am innocent. Allow me to defend myself. Perhaps they want to exchange me with someone else. There are people here who trust me. I know that they are fair. They know that I am innocent. They must release me." He has even asked for the help of Iranian people. He asked them to help him and say that he is innocent and to facilitate his release. I mean he asked everyone for help. Yes that letter was his.

Have your lawyer and your Congressman been in touch with the U.S. government  officials to pursue Amir's case at higher levels?

Many senators and members of the Congress are working for Amir's release, especially now, because of the new Iranian president Mr. Rouhani and his new cabinet who have promised to establish peace and release the prisoners. The senators and representatives have reached out to the new president to act as intermediaries for Amir's release. But I don't know what exactly has been sent back and forth.

Are you hopeful that Mr. Rouhani will be able to do anything? Does the release of political prisoners last week in Tehran give you some hope?

We have suffered a lot over the past two years, both myself and Amir’s father who had a stroke under stress. When I heard that the prisoners were released I saw it as a ray of hope. Next the Iranian president's statements about eliminating the animosity is also a sort of hope for us. God willing he is able to carry out what he says. My hope is that... I just want to ask the officials who arrested our children, people like Amir, and threw them in prison, what they would do if it were their own child? What would they do if Amir was their son? They should help as an Iranian to have Amir released. Don't the people in charge have a mother themselves? Don't they say there is great religious reward in releasing prisoners? Shouldn't they release our son? We have asked Ayatollah Khamenei many times. We asked the former president. And now we ask the new president. I don't know what to do. What would you do if it were your own child? Wouldn't you be upset?

Amir's case has created concern and fear for all second-generation Iranians who live in the United States and other countries, the generation that has grown up outside Iran but would like to travel there to visit family and to explore their homeland. By releasing Amir as a symbolic gesture, wouldn't the Iranian government actually be assuring the Iranian diaspora that if some day they send their children to Iran, they wouldn't be in danger of such a situation?

Yes, this was a very important point. The point that was very important for us was that I trusted them. Mr. Ahmadinejad used to come to the US and, for example, he told Larry King, "come to Iran and see our country." Larry King is an American. He would invite Larry King and other Americans to come see Iran. Well, my son's parents are Iranians. He was born here but he wished to come see what his parents' country looks like, to see his grandmother! His poor grandmother was sick, too, and kept asking, "why won't Amir come? I'm dying." Amir loved her very much. He wanted to go see her. Was it a bad thing he did? Believe me since this happened all the boys in our family in the US threw their passports away and said that they would never go to Iran, under any circumstances. What guarantee do they have? You know how horrible that is? Amir went to Iran with good intentions. His lawyer said he is more devout and better-behaved than many young Iranian men. I appeal to the mothers and sisters of the officials to tell their husbands, sons, and brothers to stop this once and for all! Don't you want to do good deeds? I don't know whom to tell and ask for help.

Amir went to Iran to see his grandmother, with whom he'd formed a close bond as a child. Is she permitted to visit him?

She has tried to visit him, but she is frail and elderly, and since Amir's imprisonment, her health has deteriorated. She often uses a wheelchair. When she arrived at the prison, the staff told her that she needed to climb a long staircase in order to visit him. She explained that she was unable, and asked that he might be brought down, but they refused. She has only been able to see him once or twice.