Ex-Kuma developer sentenced to death in Iran
Amir Hekmati had worked on US military language project
An ex-game developer and US marine who made a dramatic 'confession' on Iranian television has been sentenced to death for "waging war on God".
28 year old, Arizona-born Amir Mirzaei Hekmati was seen speaking on Iranian state television last December, confessing to working with the CIA to manipulate public opinion in the Arab state.
During that appearance Hekmati said that he'd been working for the CIA via Kuma Games, a New York studio which has produced, amongst other projects, contemporary war games.
Kuma remained tight-lipped on the subject of his employment or any CIA influence, Kotaku reports.
However, evidence posted to Twitter today shows that Kuma had also been contracted by an arm of the US military to help work on software to aid language acquisition and retention for soldiers, a project on which Hekmati was listed as "principal investigator".
The listing, discovered by game developer Darius Kazemi, details the project which Hakmeti had lead for CASCOM, the US Combined Arms Support Command Training Development.
In his 'confession', which has been seen as highly questionable by most outside of Iran, Hekmati said that he'd essentially been working on behalf of the CIA and the US government to spy on Iran and "was receiving money from the CIA to (produce) and design and distribute for free special movies and games with the aim of manipulating public opinion in the Middle East."
Kuma has not publicly commented on the charges.