Iranian court overturns death sentence for former US. marine

Iran’s Supreme Court has overturned a death sentence for spying handed down to a former U.S. Marine, Amir Mirzai Hekmati, ISNA news agency reported on Monday quoting a top judiciary official. “The sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court ... The case has been sent back” to the court for retrial, prosecutor general Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei told a press conference, ISNA reported. The report did not provide further details. Hekmati, an ex-Marine born in the United States to an Iranian immigrant family, was sentenced to death on January 9 by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran. Hekmati, who also holds Iranian nationality, was “sentenced to death for cooperating with a hostile nation, membership of the CIA and trying to implicate Iran in terrorism,” according to Iranian media. The New York Times had reported in February that his mother was able to meet him. Hekmati was shown on Iranian state television in December saying in Farsi and English that he was an operative for the Central Intelligence Agency sent to infiltrate Iran’s intelligence ministry. The United States has called for the release of Hekmati, with U.S. officials saying the allegation he was sent by the CIA to infiltrate the Iranian intelligence ministry was false. The case comes amid high tensions between Iran and the United States over the Islamic republic's controversial nuclear program, which Western nations and Israel say is an attempt to build an atomic bomb. Iran has detained and released a number of Americans after imprisoning them, although there is no precedent for a death sentence. In 2009, three Americans who said they were innocent hikers were detained in Iran on spying charges. All three were eventually released, one in 2010 and the other two in September 2011, despite being sentenced to eight years in prison.