U.S. Family Appeals to Iran Leader to Release Jailed Son

The family of a former U.S. Marine imprisoned in Iran appealed on Monday directly to the Iranian president, due in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, to secure his release.

Amir Hekmati, 31, has been held for three years. His father, a microbiology professor, has been diagnosed with brain cancer and recently suffered a stroke, and is desperate to see his son.

Iran's reform-minded president Hassan Rouhani, who was elected in 2013, was expected to leave Tehran on Monday for New York, where he is scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.

Anticipating Rouhani's visit, the Michigan family have stepped up calls for his release. Hekmati's father has released a short video.

"It's been a long time since last I've seen you," his father says, sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a "Free Amir" T-shirt.

Hekmati's sister Sarah travelled to New York with husband Ramy Kurdi, a surgeon, to press for a meeting with Rouhani and to meet officials on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

"My message for the president while he's here in the U.S. is that as a family we've been away from our brother for three years and my father's situation is very dire," Sarah told Agence France-Presse.

"We hope that during this time that he's meeting with U.S. government officials that there can be an opportunity to come to a resolution and hopefully resolve Amir's case so that he can be home with his father."

Her family fears that time is running out for Amir, 31, to come home in time to see his father, who is terminally ill.

"We want answers and we want to understand how we can bring him home," Sarah told AFP. "This is a really difficult time for us. There's a sense of urgency," she added.

Iran arrested her US-born brother in August 2011, saying that he was trained in Iraq and Afghanistan as a spy.

He was sentenced to death, but the penalty was overturned and he was handed a 10-year prison term.

The family denies the espionage allegations, and says that Hekmati was merely visiting relatives in Iran when he was taken from a cousin's apartment two weeks after he arrived.

They have taken heart from recent leniency shown towards Hekmati, which Sarah hopes is "a move in the right direction."

In the recent weeks he has been allowed to make daily phone calls to his mother, who had last heard his voice in January 2012, she said.

In August, he was moved from a political section to a less restricted wing of Tehran's Evin prison, his sister added.

Iran and the United States, which have had no diplomatic relations for 35 years, hold increasingly frequent talks as they work on an agreement to address international concerns over Tehran's nuclear program.

US Secretary of State John Kerry met Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif for more than an hour in New York on Sunday as he seeks to forge a coalition against jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

Representative Dan Kildee, a member of Democratic Party whose Michigan district was Amir Hekmati's home, was also in New York to press for his release and raise world attention.

Last year U.S. President Barack Obama held a historic phone call with Rouhani at the end of the U.N. General Assembly, the first direct talks since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

No contact is planned this time around. Expectations are low that the two leaders will meet, but Kildee said he would be in favor.

"I think it's always better to be in communication, even when there are big differences, so it's my hope that the two presidents will have a chance to meet one another," said Kildee.

Iran is holding two other U.S. citizens in addition to Hekmati. Christian pastor Saeed Abedini was detained last year and Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian picked up in July.