Marine veteran Amir Hekmati said his years in the Corps helped him keep his head up as he endured four and a half years in captivity in Iran – and, as he told reporters in Landstuhl, Germany, he had mentally resigned himself to a 10-year sentence on trumped-up espionage changes.
Advertisement
Hekmati and four other Iranian-Americans were released in a prisoner swap over the weekend.
“It feels great. I feel very lucky”, Hekmati, 32, told reporters outside the USA military’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany where he was taken for treatment. “I know people are eager to hear from me, but I want to process this for some time”, Rezaian said.
“I was at a point where I had just sort of accepted the fact that I was going to be spending ten years in prison, so this was a surprise and I feel extremely blessed to see my government do so much for me”, he said.
“Obviously, he’s been through trauma”, Kildee said, not elaborating further on Hekmati’s state of mind after being released from an Iranian jail on Saturday and reuniting with his family on Monday but saying he has maintained his sense of humor and has even talked to Kildee about his days playing high school hockey.
The three Americans arrived in Germany late Sunday via Switzerland.
Matthew Trevithick, detained in Iran last month on charges that were never disclosed, was freed in a deal separate from the four other Americans.
News of his eventual release was sudden and unexpected, Hekmati told reporters.
Diplomats involved in the negotiations have pointed to the urgency of the Americans’ cases, including fears that Jason Rezaian faced punishments ranging from 10 to 20 years in prison to the possibility of a death sentence.
He and his family deny any wrongdoing, and say his imprisonment included physical and mental torture and long periods of solitary confinement in a tiny cell. “They just came one morning and said, pack your things”, he said, adding that he “did not relax until we were outside of Iranian air space”.
A fourth American released in the prisoner swap, identified as Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, opted to stay in Iran.
He said Hekmati doesn’t have any immediate plans that he knows of but has shown the congressman in just a few meetings “an optimism about the future which is extraordinary for someone who has gone through what he has”.
Hekmati was released from Iran over the weekend after he was taken into custody by Iranian authorities in August 2011. Family members earlier this year said that he had lost weight and suffered from back pain, and chronic infections.
“I reiterate the need to be vigilant about the deceit and treachery of arrogant countries, especially the United States, in this [nuclear] issue and other issues”, Khamenei said, according to Iranian news agencies.
In a telephone call with the Post’s editors before they were able to meet Monday, Jason Rezaian said that isolation was the most hard part of his time in prison. “This has really been an exceptional time for me”.
As part of the deal implemented Saturday, five Americans were freed, and seven Iranians charged with or convicted here of violating sanctions against Iran were given clemency.
Advertisement
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday that USA officials believe Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran in 2007 while working for the CIA on an unapproved intelligence mission, may no longer be in that country.
