Another story has emerged to further make the headline-ready case that tensions are ratcheting up between Tehran and Washington, this time from the espionage department. On Monday, news hit the wires that an Iranian court had sentenced 28-year-old Amir Mirzaei Hekmati to death for allegedly spying for the CIA. Time to save another boatload of Iranians from pirates or something. –KA

Los Angeles Times:

The sentencing of Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, 28, is likely to add to the tension between the United States and Iran, which has been escalating over the Islamic Republic’s disputed nuclear program.

Prosecutors accused Hekmati of “cooperation with an enemy government, membership in the CIA and attempts to accuse Iran of supporting terrorism,” the semiofficial Fars news agency reported.

A branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Court found him to be a “corrupter on Earth” and “waging war on God,” the news service reports said, expressions that routinely appear in Iranian court cases.

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