Iran says Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian

Tehran should release Mr. Rezaian and the other Americans now. The ruling is eligible for appeal within 20 days, Ejehi said. “Jason should be exonerated and released”, he said. “We remain hopeful that Jason will soon be released and reunited with this family”.

The guilty verdict is “an outrageous injustice” and “contemptible”, said post executive editor Martin Baron.

“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”, he said in a statement.

For now, no sentence has been announced.

Rezaian, the United States newspaper’s Tehran correspondent and a dual Iranian-American citizen, was arrested in July 2014 and accused of spying, along with other crimes against national security.

Spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, told state TV: “He has been convicted, but I don’t have the verdict’s details”. Reid has spoken in a supportive way about Clinton in the past but said he would make an announcement on his own schedule, possibly ahead of the Nevada caucuses. In March, he was granted access to a lawyer, though not the one of his family’s choosing. “His sentencing is another sham step in a sham process”.

The 39-year-old Rezaian was tried in four hearings behind closed doors, the last of which was held in August. Iran holds several other US prisoners, including Saeed Abedini, a pastor imprisoned for his Christian faith, and Amir Hekmati, a former Marine.

“Today’s events are just the latest in what has always been a travesty of justice and an ongoing nightmare for Jason and our family”, his brother said in a statement. “So they resort to their usual tactics: force a false confession, broadcast it and convict with impunity”.

If the Obama Administration had any resolve they would have made the release of all Americans held in captivity a pre-condition for negotiating a nuclear deal.

When Iran’s repressive regime isn’t cheating arms inspectors or sponsoring terrorism, it’s choking anyone perceived as a threat within its borders.

Rezaian, the Post’s Tehran bureau chief since 2012, grew up in Marin County, California, spent most of his life in the United States, and holds both American and Iranian citizenship.

“In Jason’s conviction the judge delivered the will and demand of the intelligence services”, said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the worldwide Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Haleh Esfandiari, an expert on Iran and a public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson global Center for Scholars, suspects the Iranians are holding Rezaian because they were unable to get a prisoner swap with the USA during the nuclear negotiations.