Tortured in Iranian jail, exMarine denies spying

WASHINGTON — After Amir Hekmati was released from Iranian custody in a 2016 deal trumpeted as a diplomatic breakthrough, he was declared eligible for $20 million from a special U.S. government fund as compensation for years of imprisonment that included brutal torture.

But payday never arrived, leaving Hekmati to wonder why.

The answer has finally arrived: Newly filed court documents reviewed reveal decadeold FBI suspicions that he traveled to Iran to sell classified secrets — not, as he says, to visit his grandmother. Hekmati vigorously disputes the allegations, has never faced criminal charges and is challenging a special master’s conclusion that he lied about his visit to Iran and is therefore not entitled to the money.

The FBI suspicions help explain the government’s refusal for more than two years to pay Hekmati and muddy the narrative around a U.S. citizen, Marine and Iraq war veteran whose release was championed at the U.S. government’s highest levels, including by Joe Biden, then the vice president, and John Kerry, then the secretary of state. The documents offer radically conflicting accounts of Hekmati’s purpose in visiting Iran and detail the simmering behindthescenes dispute over whether he is entitled to access a fund that compensates victims of international terrorism.

Hekmati said in a sworn statement that allegations he sought to sell out to Iran are ridiculous and offensive. His lawyers say the government’s suspicions, detailed in FBI reports and letters from the fund’s special master denying payments, are groundless and based on hearsay. Records show that an investigation was opened 10 years ago and that Hekmati was interviewed by FBI agents upon his release, and yet federal prosecutors have brought no case.

“In this case, the U.S. government should put up or shut up,” said Scott Gilbert, a lawyer hired to recover damages. “If the government believes they have a case, indict Amir. Try Amir.”

Hekmati’s lawyers also say the FBI’s suspicions are impossible to square with the treatment he endured in prison, which included torture like being whipped and chained to a table and being forced to record a coerced but bogus confession.