Iranian television aired the “confessions” of Amir Mirzai Hekmati on Sunday night, as he admitted to “spying for the United States Central Intelligence Agency.”
Iran announced the arrest of a “U.S. spy” on Saturday, claiming that Iranian intelligence forces had been following him in Afghanistan, where he had visited U.S. military bases. He was arrested after he entered Iran.
The report indicates that the detainee identified as Amir Mirza Hekmati joined the U.S. military in 2001 and received special training before entering Iran.
Hekmati said on TV: “They [the Americans] told me, ‘If you are successful, we can give you more training and other missions… for this mission you have to travel to Iran.’"
He added: “I was in an intelligence centre in Bagram… I travelled to Dubai and later… flew to Iran.”
Bagram is the site of one of the main U.S. military bases in Afghanistan. Iranian authorities said they had been following Hekmati in Afghanistan and were aware of his visits to the Bagram base.
Hekmati said: “The U.S. plan for Iranian intelligence was to first give some valuable information, and once Iranian intelligence realized that the information was useful, they would get in touch with me and, in this way, they would identify the Iranian agents.”
Last week, the Tehran prosecutor reported that 15 people had been indicted for the charge of “spying for the U.S. and Israel.”
