American Awaits Verdict After Iran Spy Trial, Report Says

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Amir Mirza Hekmati, a 28-year-old of Iranian descent, could face the death penalty if found guilty of cooperating with a hostile government and spying for the CIA. He was arrested in December.

Iran's Intelligence Ministry accused Hekmati of receiving training at U.S. bases in neighboring Afghanistan and Iraq.

Shortly after his detention, state television showed a taped interview of him confessing to being a spy. At his trial he admitted to having links with the CIA but said he had no intention of harming Iran.

The trial comes at a time of heightened tension between Iran and the United States, which is leading efforts to tighten sanctions on Tehran because of its controversial nuclear program.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner last week urged Tehran to release Hekmati immediately.

He said that Switzerland, which represents U.S. interests in Iran in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, had formally requested permission for consular access to Hekmati on December 24 but Iran had refused.

"America's request for the return of the accused, indicates their utmost impudence and he should be tried based on the country's laws," justice ministry spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said.

Iran said in May it had arrested 30 people on suspicion of spying for the United States, and 15 people were later indicted for spying for Washington and Israel.

(Writing by Mitra Amiri; Editing by Ben Harding)

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India Ink: Quick Action in Kashmir After Shooting

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The government of Jammu and Kashmir took swift action after security forces killed an 18-year-old male Monday, arresting five men in connection with the shooting.

Altaf Ahmad Sood was killed when Central Industrial Security Forces fired on a group that was protesting electricity shortages outside the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation in the border town of Boniyar, Kashmir. State Chief Minister Omar Abdullah visited the family of the deceased youth on Tuesday, and then used Twitter to denounce the death, calling the circumstances “tragic, shocking and inexcusable.” The youth was shot twice in the chest, Mr. Abdullah said in a statement.

Local people were protesting power cuts in front of the company that runs the local hydroelectric power project. It is not clear whether the victim was part of the group of protesters.

An inspector and four constables of the C.I.S.F., a central government paramilitary unit, were arrested over the shooting. Mr. Abdullah’s quick response may be an attempt to avoid a repeat of the summer of 2010, when 120 protesting boys were killed by police over a span of several months. Protests over individual shootings would often lead to more violence and shootings. The summer of 2011 passed peacefully.

The government handled “much tougher situations last summer without a single casualty,” Mr. Abdullah told NDTV, an independent news channel.

Monday’s incident immediately provoked sharp reactions from political figures in the state. “People were demanding basic amenities of life, like power, and you give them bullets,” said Mahbooba Mufti, the main opposition leader.

The shooting “is an attack on the democratic rights of citizens to protest peacefully,” said Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, a communist party legislator in the state.

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