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Washington Post journalist reportedly convicted in Iran Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian convicted, Iran says
(about 14 hours later)
A court in Iran has convicted Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, Iran’s Isna news agency said on Sunday, but the US newspaper said Tehran was working a political angle by not disclosing details. Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who has been detained in Iran for more than a year on charges including espionage, has been convicted, a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary has said.
Isna quoted judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei as saying the California-born Rezaian, the paper’s Tehran bureau chief, had 20 days to appeal against the verdict. Rezaian was arrested in July 2014. He was accused of espionage. Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi confirmed the verdict in comments aired on state TV late on Sunday night.
“He has been convicted ... But I don’t have the details of his verdict,” the news agency quoted Ejei as saying. “He has been convicted, but I don’t have the details,” he said.
Earlier, Ejei told a televised news conference that a ruling had been issued but did not say that Rezaian was convicted. Ejehi discussed Rezaian’s case during a press conference earlier on Sunday that was restricted to Iranian media. Initial Iranian media reports, which quoted the judiciary spokesman as saying that a verdict has been issued, did not include any comment that Rezaian had been convicted leading to confusion surrounding the decision.
The case has been a sensitive issue for Washington and Iran, and Sunday’s announcement did little to resolve it. Only the semi-official Isna news agency eventually reported the conviction comment, and later in the day state TV broadcast Ejehi’s comment that Rezaian has been convicted.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said the US was monitoring the case closely. “We continue to call for all charges against Jason to be dropped and for him to be immediately released,” Kirby said earlier. State TV aired selected video of the press conference and called Rezaian an American spy.
Iran has accused Rezaian, 39, of collecting confidential information and giving it to hostile governments, writing a letter to the US president, Barack Obama, and acting against national security. The Post has rejected the charges as absurd. The final hearing in his trial was on 10 August. Ejehi said Rezaian is eligible to appeal within 20 days.
The Post’s executive editor, Martin Baron, said the conviction was “an outrageous injustice, adding: “Iran has behaved unconscionably throughout this case, but never more so than with this indefensible decision by a revolutionary court to convict an innocent journalist of serious crimes after a proceeding that unfolded in secret, with no evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing. For now, no sentence has been announced.”
The Washington Post’s executive editor Martin Baron said that the statement from Tehran was “vague and puzzling,” and the Post’s foreign editor Douglas Jehl said the announcement showed Rezaian’s case was not just about espionage but that the reporter was a bargaining chip in a “larger game”. The paper is working with Rezaian’s family and legal counsel to appeal against the verdict and push for his release on bail pending a final decision, Baron said.
“It’s increasingly clear that the final decision about how Jason’s case will be handled will be made by political authorities, not by judicial ones,” Jehl told Reuters. “The contemptible end to this ‘judicial process’ leaves Iran’s senior leaders with an obligation to right this grievous wrong. Jason is a victim arrested without cause, held for months in isolation, without access to a lawyer, subjected to physical mistreatment and psychological abuse, and now convicted without basis.
Rezaian’s brother Ali had noted on Friday that his brother had been imprisoned for 444 days – the same length of time that American embassy staff were held after the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran. “He has spent nearly 15 months locked up in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, more than three times as long than any other western journalists.”
In a statement, he said Sunday’s initial announcement “follows an unconscionable pattern by Iranian authorities of silence, obfuscation, delay and a total lack of adherence to international law, as well as Iranian law.“ Baron reiterated the Post’s position that Rezaian was innocent and that he should be exonerated and set free.
Iranian parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, hinted last month that Rezaian could be freed in exchange for Iranian prisoners in the US, but officials have played down the possibility of such a swap. Iran has accused Rezaian, 39, of collecting confidential information and giving it to hostile governments, writing a letter to Barack Obama and acting against national security.
Two other US citizens – Christian pastor Saeed Abedini and Amir Hekmati, a former US marine corps sergeant – also are being held in Iran. Robert Levinson, a private investigator, disappeared there in 2007. Leila Ahsan, Rezaian’s lawyer told the Associated Press on Sunday “there are no new developments”, adding that she yet to receive the verdict. Ahsan was not reachable for comment on Monday.
Their cases have been raised in subsequent talks, including between the Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, and US secretary of state John Kerry when they met during the UN general assembly in New York last month. No progress was announced. Rezaian was detained with his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, who is a journalist for the National newspaper in the United Arab Emirates, and two photojournalists on 22 July 2014. All were later released except Rezaian.
Rezaian, the Post’s Tehran bureau chief since 2012, has dual Iranian-American nationality. Iran does not recognise dual nationality for its citizens.
The reporter faced multiple charges including espionage in a closed-door trial that has been widely criticised by the US government and press freedom organisations. He reportedly faces up to 20 years in prison.