[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6744-6745]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               FREE AMERICAN POLITICAL PRISONERS IN IRAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Kildee) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor of the House of 
Representatives again to introduce and talk to this body and to the 
American people about my constituent, Amir Hekmati. Amir is an 
American. He is a United States marine. He is a brother. He is a son. 
He is a Michigander. He grew up in my hometown of Flint, Michigan. He 
served this country in uniform, as I said, in the United States Marine 
Corps. He is of Iranian descent, though he was born in the United 
States.
  In 2011, for the first time, he traveled to Iran to visit family he 
had never met, a grandmother he had never seen. He traveled under his 
own name, notified the Iranian Government that he was going to be 
there; and after just a couple of weeks, he was apprehended, 
disappeared. His family didn't know where he was for months until it 
was revealed that he had been tried, convicted, and sentenced to death 
for espionage, a charge that he is completely innocent of. In fact, the 
Iranian court of appeals, the appeals process, even set aside that 
conviction and set aside his death sentence. There was no evidence.
  They did convict him and sentence him to 10 years, a conviction that 
is based on the fact that, under Iranian law, he is considered an 
Iranian citizen even though he was born in the United States and never 
had even been there before. But the fact that he had served in the 
Marine Corps created a set of facts that caused them to convict him of 
a crime and sentence him to 10 years.

[[Page 6745]]

  It has been 3\1/2\ years. For 1,354 days, Amir Hekmati has sat in 
Evin prison, a notorious prison in Tehran.
  I have introduced, along with a number of other Members, a resolution 
calling for the immediate release of the Americans that Iran holds. It 
has 28 Republican cosponsors, 27 Democrats, and we are adding them 
every day.
  This is not even a bipartisan issue; this is a nonpartisan question. 
It is beyond politics. This is about the rights of a free man being 
held in Iran. So I am asking my colleagues and the American people to 
get engaged, to call upon Iran to do what is right and release the 
Americans that they hold. And it is really important that this Congress 
speak with one voice and carry the voices of all the people that we 
represent, asking, telling Iran that if they think they can join the 
global community and continue to hold innocent Americans as political 
prisoners, they are wrong.
  So, please, for those who want to, use the hashtag #freeamirnow to 
send a message to thank those Members, as I will, to thank those 
Members of Congress who have joined this resolution. I will be sending 
out on Twitter a thank-you to each Member who has done so, using 
#freeamirnow. I hope other Members of Congress and those across the 
country will join us.
  Later today we will consider legislation that will define how 
Congress will review and offer its input on the potential Iran nuclear 
deal. It is really important that we negotiate with those who make this 
world more dangerous first before attempting other methods, and it is 
important that we give this negotiation a chance. But it is also very 
clear that it will be very difficult for this Congress and the American 
people to consider any understanding, any agreement, with Iran without 
considering their other behavior, whether it is this nuclear agreement 
or other engagement with this country. If they continue to hold 
Americans as political prisoners, it is impossible for us to ignore 
that fact.
  It is very clear that we should never trade the freedom of innocent 
Americans for concessions at the negotiating table with Iran over their 
nuclear capabilities. Again, we should not make their freedom a part of 
this deal. They, meaning the American families who are worrying about 
their loved ones, don't want this; and I know that Amir Hekmati, 
himself, does not want to be part of the consideration, does not want 
to be traded for concessions at the nuclear negotiating table.
  The onus is on Iran to do what is right, and it is critical that this 
body and all the people that we represent speak with a single voice and 
make it clear, as the Senate did in their resolution calling upon Iran 
to release these Americans. It is important that the people's body 
speak for the people of the United States and tell Iran loud and clear 
that you cannot hold Americans as political prisoners and be accepted 
into the international community.

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