A former U.S. Marine who Iran imprisoned for 4 1/2 years on spying charges is suing Tehran over torture he claims he endured in jail.
According to a lawsuit filed in Washington on May 10, dual U.S.-Iranian citizen Amir Hekmati was treated brutally and tricked into providing a false confession while jailed in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison.
Hekmati was freed in a prisoner swap in January along with four other American prisoners after Washington granted clemency to seven Iranians.
During his imprisonment, Hekmati was "whipped at the bottom of his feet, struck by an electrical Taser to his kidney area, forced to stay in stress positions for hours at a time, and hit with batons," the lawsuit states.
The former Marine was arrested by Iranian officials while visiting relatives in Tehran in August 2011.
He ultimately was forced to confess to being a CIA spy and sentenced to death. The sentence was later reduced to 10 years jail.
His attorney, Scott Gilbert, said he expects to obtain a default judgment against Iran, at which point he will attempt to collect damage awards from Iranian funds that have been frozen in U.S. banks.