Amir Hekmati’s Letter to President Hassan Rouhani

Amir Hekmati, an Iranian American and ex-US marine who has spent more three years in Tehran’s Evin Prison, has written a letter to President Rouhani disclosing details of his traumatic incarceration and demanding the president do everything within his power to secure his release. Hekmati was arrested in August 2011 whilst visiting relatives in Iran for the first time.

This is the second time that Hekmati has written a letter to high-ranking Iranian officials appealing for their assistance. He also wrote a letter to Sadegh Ardeshir Amoli Larijani, the head of Iran’s judiciary, and Mahmoud Alavi, the Minister of Intelligence, in December 2014.

Hekmati is one of three US citizens of Iranian descent imprisoned in Iran; Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian was detained in July and formally charged on January 14 and pastor Saeed Abedini, 34, was sentenced to eight years in jail in 2013 on charges of disturbing national security.

His Excellency Dr. Hassan Rouhani

President of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Your Excellency President Rouhani

Since August 2011, I have been falsely accused and imprisoned while visiting relatives in Iran for the first time. As many other Iranians born in the US, I dreamed of visiting my parent’s homeland and learning more of my Iranian heritage. Unfortunately, after receiving assurances from the Iranian Interest Section in Washington DC, after only three weeks I was arrested, sentenced to death, and subsequently ten years to only discover that the Iranian Interest Section was an accomplice in my arrest. I have been imprisoned for three years now, enduring miserable prison conditions that cause great damage to my physical and mental health.

For the first four months, I was held in a 1 x 1 meter solitary confinement cell with no access to family, telephone, or legal representation. I was told while in this 1 x 1 cell that I would not be allowed to leave unless I agreed to do a video confession. My family endured the most painful and horrific four months of their lives, wondering what became of me while my relatives inside Iran roamed Tehran day and night only to be lied to repeatedly by prison officials of my whereabouts. The Iranian Interest Section also did not have the courtesy to alleviate my family’s concern even though they knew of my whereabouts. For seventeen months, I endured a tiny cell with little access to sunlight, little to no contact with family, no access to legal representation, starvation, malnutrition, sensory deprivation, threats, and ridicule and insults to my family and country by Ministry of Intelligence personal.

Although I am no longer in solitary confinement, conditions remain dire. I am being housed with drug dealers and other hardened criminals, facing food and energy shortages due to budgetary constraints imposed on the prison due to dire economic conditions inside Iran. I have not seen my family for three years, over three years, and I’ve had to endure the news of my father’s deteriorating health and battle with cancer. My family finally learned of my whereabouts in Iranian media as I was sentenced to death publicly. A purely political conviction with no legal basis, which after only two months was annulled, and changed to ten years, also not having any legal basis. During this period, the Iranian Interest Section in DC and the judge also admittedly stated to my family that my case is political and in response to the arrests of Iranians by US authorities.

For the past three years, my family has been receiving emails and phone calls from individuals within Iran proposing prisoner exchanges, even going as far as asking my family to lobby publicly for the release of these individuals. Considering I have committed no crime and have no connections to these individuals, my family and I fail to see why we should have to lobby for their release or why I should have to spend the next ten years in prison.

According to your Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mrs. Afkham, she has publicly stated that there are no Americans imprisoned in Iran and I am an Iranian. But also stating publicly

that Iranians being released from US prisons could help my case and I could finally return home. If I am an Iranian citizen, according to Mrs. Afkham, how can Iran falsely imprison its own citizen and trade him for another Iranian? Mrs. Afkham has also indicated Iranians in question are being held for simply violating sanctions laws, while individuals who have been contacting my family and demanding the release of individuals whose cases have nothing to do with sanctions, but of a much more serious nature, making any prisoner exchange highly uneven, considering I have not violated the laws and have no connection to their arrests.

While I was not arrested during your watch, but by your predecessor ((inaudible)), it’s the same administration that arrested and subsequently released a number of other American citizens, also for political purposes and in hopes of conducting a prisoner exchange. And while I do not attribute my detention to your government, it is now you who is presiding over the intelligence service and who has the power to intervene. Just as President Obama has taken great steps towards ending nearly forty years of hostility between the two countries, even while facing tough domestic and foreign opposition, my hope is that you will also be willing to work towards ending decades of hostility, part of which has been caused by the continued detention of American citizens for political purposes. The government’s diplomatic efforts in resolving the nuclear issue have been highly successful. And if diplomacy has helped resolve an issue as complicated the nuclear one, then it is possible to find a resolution for imprisoned Iranians as well and there would no longer be any need for my continued unjust and illegal detention.

Thousands of Iranian-Americans have also voiced their opposition and are now afraid to visit Iran for fear of being dealt a similar fate, damaging ongoing efforts of your government to encourage Iranian-Americans to visit and invest in the country. It is important to note that thousands of Iranians are allowed entrance into the US for studying and tourism and flourish, while Iranians who visit Iran from other countries may face a situation like my own.

The Iranian Interest Section in DC was supposed to protect the interest of Iranian- Americans visiting Iran. It has also had its credibility damaged in this process. The American Islamic community has also voiced condemnation both in writing and in personal meetings with you at the UN General Assembly ((inaudible)) this action as being against Islamic values in that two wrongs do not make a right. If your government’s claims are true that Iranians being held in the US are innocent and are being held on false pretenses and you consider this wrong, then why has the Iranian government been engaged in the very same wrong repeatedly over the previous decades? American Islamic leaders, many of which are also Iranian citizens having studied in Iran, have offered to mediate my release but it has been rebuffed. The US government also released Dr. Atarodi after temporary house arrest, but there was no reciprocation on behalf of the Iranian government.

And after numerous pleas from my family and a hunger strike, there has been no willingness to resolve my case. I continue to hope that you will accept calls for a good will gesture by releasing Americans detained in Iran for political purposes under the context of improving US-Iran relations and take a brave step toward ending the hostility between

these two nations and leading to a permanent solution as opposed to a simple prisoner exchange which, if ever realized, will be done with much resentment and only offer a temporary solution to an issue that has been going on for decades and will most likely recur if an overall agreement is not reached. The Obama administration has continually voiced its willingness to improve relations and the US justice system has various tools at its disposal to reduce sentences and pardons, which in the event of improved relations, have a high chance of being made available to Iranians imprisoned in the US.

Having experienced prison myself, I too hope those Iranians would soon be reunited with their families, but this is a matter between states and I cannot and have not played a role in this matter. I have now spent nearly 1,200 days (over 1,200 days) in your prison. However, I continue to maintain that I’ve committed no crime and have nothing to do with Iranian prisoners in the US which should be released.

Thanks to my Iranian lawyer’s efforts, my case has been accepted by the Supreme Court for review for retrial. Certain elements within Iran are not allowing this to happen, damaging the credibility of Iran’s Islamic justice system. I have not lost hope that your calls for better relations with the world, including the US, will result in you taking action and putting an end to what now the longest incarceration of an American in Iran in history. I continue to hope that in the near future the hostility between the US and Iran will come to an end, brightening the future for Americans and Iranians alike.

Respectfully, Amir Hekmati