FLINT, MI -- A Flint man and Marine veteran

has renounced his Iranian citizenship and is requesting deportation from the country.

A statement from Hekmati's family details what they call torture, abuse and a forced confession that he has been through. Those claims detail poor nutrition, foot whippings and long stretches of solitary confinement.

"Once deported, he promises never to return," the family said in the statement.

Hekmati was born in the United States but acquired dual citizenship when traveling to Iran to visit family. In 2011, he applied to the Iranian interests section of the Pakistan Embassy in Washington to acquire an Iranian passport to visit relatives.

The family also released a letter they say was written by Hekmati to the Iranian interests section of the Pakistan Embassy in Washington.

"To date, prison officials continue to take every opportunity to address me as a spy in hopes of weakening my morale and to escape their own guilty consciences," the letter reads.

Hekmati was born in Arizona, but later moved to Flint while his father worked at Mott Community College. He graduated from high school in Flint before joining the U.S. Marine Corps in 2001.

In August 2011, Hekmati was arrested in Iran on allegations that he was a spy. Family members say he was making the trip to visit his grandmother in Tehran after getting permission from the Iranian Interests Section of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Initially, he was sentenced to death. The sentence was overturned, and he was later charged with cooperating and collaborating with the U.S. government, and sentenced to 10 years in prison.