Family of Ex-Marine in Iran Sets Defense, as Feud Builds

WASHINGTON—The family of a former U.S. Marine sentenced to death by Iran's Revolutionary Court as a spy enlisted the aid of a high-profile international lawyer as the verdict fanned tensions between Washington and Tehran.

The State Department said it received confirmation Tuesday, via Swiss officials who handle U.S.

diplomacy inside Iran, that Amir Hekmati had received a death sentence. Mr. Hekmati, an Iranian-American U.S. citizen born in Arizona and raised in Michigan, was arrested in mid-September while on a visit to Iran and charged with spying for the Central Intelligence Agency.

"We strongly condemn the death sentence verdict given to Mr. Hekmati," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. "We've conveyed our condemnation to the Iranian government through the Swiss protecting power. We maintain, as we have from the beginning, that these charges against him are a fabrication."     Read More