TEHRAN: Iran’s Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence handed to a former US Marine convicted of espionage, with the penalty being cut to 10 years in jail, media reported.

Amir Hekmati, a dual US-Iranian citizen, was arrested in August 2011, put on trial and found guilty of spying for the CIA. In January 2012, he was sentenced to death.

“The death sentence was overruled in the country’s Supreme Court and reduced to a 10-year jail term,” attorney Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabie told the Sharq daily newspaper.