Amir Hekmati, a 30-year-old Iranian-American and former Marine, has been imprisoned in Tehran for more than two years. freeamir.org

FLINT, Mich. | In an unexpected move, the Iranian government freed 11 high-profile political prisoners Wednesday, just days before new President Hassan Rouhani is slated to speak at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The action is unprecedented, said Karim Sadjadpour, a leading researcher on Iran and a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “I don’t recall an incident when so many high-profile political prisoners were released abruptly and within the same day.”

He added: “What they’ve managed to do is to totally reverse the story: instead of being about political prisoners, the story is now about their release.”

Among those released are activists, journalists and other advocates, including Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent human rights lawyer whose imprisonment for allegedly endangering national security and spreading propaganda had garnered much international condemnation.

But a name not on that list of 11 – to the deep disappointment of one family in Flint, Mich. – was Amir Hekmati.

Hekmati is a 30-year-old Iranian-American and former Marine who has been imprisoned in Tehran for more than two years, accused of spying for the CIA.

“I am very happy for the mother of Nasrin Sotoudeh, who must have been suffering like I have been suffering,” Behnaz Hekmati, Amir’s mother, told America Tonight as the news broke. “And I hope that I will also be as happy to have my own son return home soon.”

It’s hard not to appreciate her resilience. Over the last two years, the Hekmati family has endured an array of devastating developments in Amir’s case.