Former US Marine released from Iran returning to Michigan

A former U.S. Marine recently released from an Iranian prison in a prisoner-swap deal is back in MI.

His sisters, Sarah and Leila Hekmati, and Sarah’s husband, Ramy Kurdi, traveled to Germany to meet Amir, who was taken there from Iran by a Swiss aircraft, along with others who had been incarcerated, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, on Sunday.

Kildee’s role was praised by many including Hekmati and U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi who tweeted Kildee to thank him “for unrelenting efforts” to help win Hekmati’s release.

Hekmati graduated from Flint Central High School.

Hekmati kept his comments brief, and said he would share more about his experiences later.

Amir Hekmati spoke to the news media Tuesday outside a medical facility in Germany, where he said he considered himself “extremely lucky” and his entire release “surreal”.

He and his family arrived in Bishop International Airport in Flint at 4 p.m.

“I’m just glad this day came”, Kildee said. His family lives near Flint, which has also drawn attention lately because of a drinking water crisis involving elevated lead levels in children.

Hekmati, 32, was arrested while visiting his grandmother in Iran in 2011.

A US congressman from MI said he worked in public and behind the scenes, once meeting privately with Iran’s foreign minister, to win the release of an Iranian-American prisoner from his congressional district sentenced to death for spying.

He was one of five Americans released to coincide with the lifting last weekend of economic sanctions against Iran in return for curbs on Tehran’s atomic program.

Another former prisoner in Iran, Christian pastor Saeed Abedini, 35, was set to arrive in Atlanta and then fly to Asheville, North Carolina on Thursday to be reunited with members of his family over the next several days, his wife told Reuters.

Hekmati 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.

“But despite all the difficulties thank God and thanks to everyone’s support”.