Marine Veteran Held by Iran Received Care, His Family Says

A Marine veteran who is the longest-held American prisoner in Iran was allowed to receive medical treatment in a hospital outside his prison in recent weeks, his family said Thursday. It is unclear whether the hospital visit might be a precursor to his release.

The prisoner, Amir Hekmati, 32, was escorted from Evin Prison in Tehran to a hospital for medical tests, including a CT scan, because of lymph node swelling in his face and neck, Mr. Hekmati’s family in the United States said in an emailed statement. He is scheduled for another checkup outside prison in the next few weeks, the statement said.

While the precise cause of the swelling was not clear, Mr. Hekmati appeared to be improving, the statement said. The family also was heartened that the Iranian judicial authorities had allowed Mr. Hekmati to leave the prison, albeit temporarily, for the first time since he was incarcerated more than four years ago.

“The very fact that they took him out of the prison and to a hospital is good,” the statement said.

The semiofficial Tasnim news agency in Iran, quoting his Iranian lawyer, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei, reported on Dec. 30 that prison officials were considering a conditional release of Mr. Hekmati for good conduct. Mr. Tabatabaei also was quoted as saying that his client was eligible for probation under Iranian law, which permits releases for certain inmates who have served at least a third of their sentences.

Mr. Hekmati, an American of Iranian descent from Flint, Mich., who served with the Marines in Iraq, was seized while visiting relatives in Tehran in August 2011. He was convicted of espionage and sentenced to death, but that verdict was overturned. He was then convicted of aiding a hostile country — meaning the United States — and was sentenced to a 10-year prison term. Mr. Hekmati has asserted his innocence and described himself as a political pawn in relations between the United States and Iran.

He is one of at least four Americans of Iranian descent known to be incarcerated in Iran, all of whom are considered by Iran to be Iranian citizens regardless of their country of birth. The United States has repeatedly demanded that Iran release them, an issue that has festered despite diplomatic advances made in other areas, most notably the multinational agreement on the Iranian nuclear program that could take effect this month.

The others held in Iran are Jason Rezaian, 39, of Marin, Calif., the Tehran correspondent for The Washington Post, who was imprisoned in July 2014 and convicted in October on charges that included spying; Saeed Abedini, 35, a pastor from Boise, Idaho, who was arrested in 2012 and is serving an eight-year term on charges that included subverting national security; and Siamak Namazi, a business consultant in his 40s, who is a member of a prominent Iranian family that moved to the United States in 1983. Mr. Namazi, who worked for an oil company in the United Arab Emirates, was taken into custody in October while visiting relatives in Tehran. There has been no word on what charges, if any, he faces.

Mr. Rezaian’s brother, Ali Rezaian, said in an email that his family still had no details on the spying verdict or sentence in the three months since the Iranian news media said Jason Rezaian had been found guilty after a closed trial. But he said their mother, Mary Rezaian, and Mr. Rezaian’s wife, Yeganeh Salehi, had been permitted an extended year-end visit with him in prison and more time for phone conversations. He said Ms. Salehi had also been permitted to give him new clothes.

“So those are certainly positive,” he said.

Executives of The Washington Post, who say Mr. Rezaian is innocent of any wrongdoing, have described his prosecution and imprisonment as a Kafkaesque farce. The case has also become more pressing to other foreign news organizations. Last week executives from 25 of them sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry urging him to press Iran to release Mr. Rezaian.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/15/world/middleeast/ex-marine-held-by-iran-received-care-family-says.html?_r=0