Washington Post Reporter Held in Iran Angry, Depressed, Brother Says

“Regardless of whether there has been a conviction or not, we continue to call for the government of Iran to drop all charges against Jason and release him immediately”, said spokesman John Kirby.

In a statement, Marty Baron, the executive editor of the Post, called the verdict an “outrageous injustice”.

The treatment and trial of Rezaian has drawn condemnation from his family, the United States government and press freedom groups as well as The Washington Post. This fact has been repeatedly cited by regime officials to rebuff USA efforts to intervene not only in the Rezaian case but also in the cases of Amir Hekmati and Pastor Saeed Abedini, two other American-Iranian dual citizens held captive in Iran.

“The contemptible end to this “judicial process” leaves Iran’s senior leaders with an obligation to right this grievous wrong”, Baron said.

Ali Rezaian said that he and his lawyer have no other details on the conviction. Nothing has emerged from Iran’s statements on the case to contradict this.

The U.S. State Department, which has not had formal diplomatic relations with Iran since the 1979 hostage crisis, yet recently completed negotiations on a deal lifting economic sanctions in Iran, was awaiting confirmation Monday that Rezaian had been found guilty. “It is disgusting to reward a country that so brazenly violates worldwide law and abuses our fellow citizens”, they said.

Frustrated with the slow pace of the trial, Ali Rezaian last month petitioned a United Nations human rights panel to help obtain his brother’s release.

Rezaian has been held in custody by Iranian officials since July of a year ago on charges of espionage, which both local officials and western media outlets have called foul on, given the nature of the situation. His lawyer said at the time she expected a verdict could be issued as early as the following week.

Rezaian, 39, was arrested in 2014, told his loved ones that he learned of his conviction while watching TV in Iran’s infamous Evin Prison.

“As members of the community, we were very concerned”, said Sia Zadeh, who knew the journalist and his late father, Taghi Rezaian, for many years.

Republican lawmakers who pushed, unsuccessfully, to link winning the freedom of American prisoners in Iran to the Iran nuclear deal renewed their concerns following the verdict. They have made clear they’re willing to move toward freeing Jason and other Americans if the United States is willing to free Iranians held in American prisons in return.

“I don’t particularly like the word “exchange, ‘ but from a humanitarian perspective, if we can take a step, we must do it. The American side must take its own steps”, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told CBS” “60 Minutes” in September. At that time, the charges that they were being held on were a mystery. Rezaian was working as the Tehran correspondent for The Washington Post when he was arrested in July 2014. The US also says it has asked for the Iranian government’s assistance in finding former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Robert Levinson, who went missing in 2007 while working for the CIA on an unapproved intelligence mission.