Lawyer says U.S. offered prisoner swap for ex-Marine held in Iran

A lawyer for an Iranian-American former U.S. Marine jailed in Tehran was reported on Tuesday as saying the United States had sought his release through a prisoner swap, but officials in Washington denied any proposed exchange.

Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai, attorney for former Marine Amir Hekmati, told Iran's semi-official Tasnim News Agency that the United States had made the request and it had been put to Iran's judiciary, which has not yet responded.

"The US has submitted the request via its interest section in Iran," Tabatabai was quoted by Tasnim as saying.

Tabatabai did not say which individual or individuals Washington had proposed to release in return for Hekmati's freedom, adding that the names would be made public at the Iranian judiciary's discretion.

Reuters telephone calls to Tabatabai's office in Tehran went unanswered. State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said Washington had not suggested a prisoner swap.

"The U.S government has not proposed a prisoner exchange for Mr. Hekmati. It is not true," Harf said, calling on the Iranian government to release Hekmati immediately, as well as two other detained U.S. citizens.

Hekmati was arrested in August 2011, his family says, and convicted of spying for the CIA, a charge his relatives and the U.S. government deny. His family says he was detained while visiting his grandmother in Tehran.

He was sentenced to death, but a higher court nullified the penalty in March 2012 and sent the case to another court. Hekmati went on a hunger strike earlier this month to protest his detention.

Hekmati's case is another irritant between Washington and Tehran, who severed relations following Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. The United States and other world powers are engaged in sensitive negotiations with Iran over curbing Iran's nuclear program in exchange for easing economic sanctions.

Hekmati served as an infantryman, language and cultural adviser and Arabic and Persian linguist in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2001 to 2005, performing some of his service in Iraq.

Reuters