Montel Williams has taken Iran's imprisonment of fellow Marine veteran Amir Hekmati personally.

When 60 Minutes’ interview with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani aired Sunday, Williams was flabbergasted that correspondent Steve Kroft did not press the Iranian president for Hekmati’s release, and immediately voiced his criticism on social media.

"Amir Hekmati has been in jail in Iran for more than four years essentially because of his prior service in the United States Marine Corps," Williams told Marine Corps Times in an email exchange Tuesday. "Shame on all of us if we fail to take every opportunity to raise the profile of his case, especially during a rare opportunity to do so with the President of Iran."

60 Minutes did not respond to a request for comment.

In the 15-minute segment with Rouhani, Kroft primarily focused on the U.S.-Iranian nuclear deal reached this summer, and briefly touched on Iran's imprisonment of Jason Rezaian, an Iranian-American journalist for The Washington Post.

For Williams, a well-known television and radio personality who enlisted in the Corps in 1974 straight out of high school, making sure Hekmati stays in the national spotlight is a matter of principle.

"We leave no Marine behind. Period," he told Marine Corps Times in an interview last April. "I bought into the fact: that once a Marine, always a Marine. I bought into it in boot camp."

Williams expressed his disappointment with the 60 Minutes interview on Twitter and Facebook for what he believed was "a missed opportunity at a critical time" ahead of Rouhani's visit to New York this week for the 70th United Nations General Assembly.

Hekmati's family has raised urgent concerns about his health and requested that Iran allow him to be examined by an independent physician, Williams said.

After CNN's Christiane Amanpour pressed Rouhani on the issue during an interview last year, he noted, Hekmati's torture immediately ended.

His family detailed Hekmati's extensive mistreatment at Iran's infamous Evin prison in a statement last March.

Hekmati, a former Marine sergeant and infantry rifleman from Michigan, was arrested in August 2011 for alleged espionage while visiting relatives in Iran and was sentenced to death. The conviction was later overturned and his sentence reduced to 10  ten years, but his family and the U.S. government vehemently maintain his innocence.

President Obama pleaded for the release of Hekmati and others held captive in Iran in a statement timed with Nowruz, Iran's New Year.

60 Minutes did not respond to a request for comment.

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