Hillary Clinton's unsecured server system likely contributed to the execution of an Iranian physicist accused of spying for the United States, the former head of an American mercenary firm said Monday.

"The physicist that came out, he defected, he was a treasure trove of information, but the CIA and the Clinton State Department botched it while he was in the States, left him pretty much unsupported," Erik Prince, the founder and former CEO of mercenary firm Blackwater, told Breitbart News Daily host Stephen Bannon.

Prince was referring to Shahram Amiri, the Iranian physicist who disappeared while on pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in 2009. He re-emerged in the U.S. a year later, an alleged victim of abduction by the CIA.

However, two 2010 emails on Clinton's private server revealed Amiri's identity as a purported defector. Prince pointed out that Iran could easily have hacked the server, leading to problems for members of Amiri's family who had been left behind.

"The second time he calls home, the Iranian intelligence service answers the phone. Undoubtedly, they leveraged him. When the guy talks about psychological trauma here in the United States, I'm sure it's because the Iranians were telling him all the things they were going to do to his family if he didn't come home," Prince said.

Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2588632
"Once again, the administration screwed it up. He goes home; of course, he's arrested. And then Hillary's emails, which were in the open, certainly readable by foreign powers, were talking about Hillary's so-called friend, who was a defection, and not an abduction, as the guy was claiming," Prince added. "Hillary's emails, playing fast and loose with national security matters, very likely caused this guy to die."

"He'd been sentenced to prison, but after the release of these emails, he was taken out and executed," he said. "When he went back to Iran, there was no talk of him being executed. Once her emails were released, he was executed. What does it mean? It means, once again, America does not take care of the people that help America. This guy was a treasure trove of information on the Iranian nuclear program. He's dead."

The issue entered the spotlight on Sunday, when Sen. Tom Cotton raised it during an interview on CBS. The Arkansas Republican, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said it illustrated Clinton was "reckless and careless" and raised questions about her ability to lead the nation.