US asks Iran to immediately release Hekmati

The US has condemned the death sentence handed to American-Iranian ex-Marine Amir Mirzai Hekmati in Iran and asked Tehran to release him immediately. An Iranian court has sentenced to death Hekmati, a 28-year-old former US Marine born in the US to an Iranian family, for cooperating with a hostile nation, membership of the CIA and trying to implicate Iran in terrorism. “The allegations against Hekmati are false. This is not the first time, though we could only hope it would be the last, that the Iranians have falsely accused people of being spies,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.