The lawyer for a former U.S. Marine facing execution in Iran for allegedly spying has asked American officials to consider a prisoner swap in order to save his client’s life.

 

Amir Mirzaei Hekmati was sentenced in January to be hanged after being convicted of spying on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency.

 

The U.S. government has not responded to Hekmati’s attorney’s call for a prisoner exchange.

 

Iran reportedly is interested in the release of Shahrzad Mir Golikhani, an Iranian-American convicted of helping to illegally export night-vision equipment to Iran. There are also nearly a dozen other people in American prisoners who the Iranian government might want freed. Although there is speculation that the Iranian government is using Hekmati as bargaining chip, in January 2011, the Iranians did hang a Dutch-Iranian woman, Sahra Bahrami after arresting her for taking part in anti-government protests in 2009.

 

The CIA has declined to comment on Hekmati’s case, while the White House and the State Department have denied the ex-Marine is a spy.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

American Sentenced to Death in Iran Visited by His Mother (J. David Goodman, New York Times)