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Endorse This: Welcome Home, Jason Rezaian

Endorse This: Welcome Home, Jason Rezaian

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Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter who was imprisoned in Iran for a year and a half until his release two weeks ago, spoke this morning at the Post‘s grand opening of their new offices, to a huge welcome home from all his colleagues.

“For much of the 18 months I was imprisoned, my Iranian interrogators told me that The Washington Post did not exist — that nobody knew of my plight, and that the United States government would not lift a finger for my release,” Rezaian described to the assembly. “Today, I”m here in this room with the very people who helped prove the Iranians wrong in so many ways.”

He emotionally thanked everyone at the paper, who never stopped working to secure his release, as well as Sec. of State John Kerry and Special Envoy Brett McGurk, who were present for the ceremony, and who had conducted crucial negotiations with the Iranian regime: “No other country would do so much for an ordinary citizen — and I know that.”

Video viaThe Washington Post.

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Freed ‘Washington Post’ Journalist Rezaian Headed To U.S.: Statement

Freed ‘Washington Post’ Journalist Rezaian Headed To U.S.: Statement

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian headed home to the United States on Friday, days after being freed from 18 months in prison in Iran as part of a historic prisoner exchange between Tehran and the United States.

Rezaian, who had been staying in Germany with his wife and mother who also left Iran with him on Sunday, said he was grateful for his newfound freedom but was not yet ready to talk about his imprisonment.

“At some point, I will be ready to discuss my ordeal but for now, I just want to express my profound appreciation for the tremendous support I have received,” the Iranian-American said in a statement early Friday morning.

“Today, I am incredibly thankful for my family, my fellow journalists, my colleagues at the Washington Post, and everyone else who fought for my freedom,” he said.

After his release by Iran, Rezaian spent several days at the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, before leaving with his family for the United States on Friday.

Rezaian, who was born in California and holds dual U.S. and Iranian citizenship, was accused of espionage by Iran. He and his Iranian wife, Yeganeh Salehi, were arrested in July 2014, although she was later freed while he remained detained.

Salehi, in the statement, said she was overjoyed to be reunited with her husband “and that we are now together beginning an exciting new chapter in our lives.”

“I am thrilled to be going to the United States and thankful beyond words for the overwhelming support Jason and our family have received from so many people,” she said. 

Rezaian’s brother Ali along with executives at the Post had led the effort to seek their release, urging the Obama administration to press the issue with Iran.

Rezaian, in his statement, thanked U.S. and Swiss officials for their efforts.

The prisoner swap was announced as world powers, including the United States, implemented a landmark nuclear deal. In exchange for the release of five Americans from Iran, the White House offered clemency to seven Iranians who were convicted or facing trial in the United States.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Bill Trott)

Photo: Jason Rezaian (2R), Washington Post reporter and one of the U.S. citizens recently released from detention in Iran, poses to media together with his wife Yeganeh Salehi (2L), mother Mary Rezaian (R) and brother Ali Rezaian (L) outside the Emergency Room of the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) in the southwestern town of Landstuhl, Germany, January 20, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

Spy Trial In Iran Of Washington Post Reporter Adjourns

Spy Trial In Iran Of Washington Post Reporter Adjourns

By Dpa Correspondents, dpa (TNS)

TEHRAN — The trial in Iran of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who has been detained for the past 10 months on charges including espionage, began in a Tehran court on Tuesday, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

The proceedings were then adjourned, with no concrete date set for the next hearing, according to the ISNA news agency.
Observers said it was still not clear what exactly Rezaian is accused of spying on.

Rezaian, who holds dual U.S. and Iranian citizenship and is the newspaper’s bureau chief in Tehran, was arrested in July along with his wife, the journalist Yeganeh Salehi, who was later released from detention. The two are being tried separately.

Rezaian was held in the notorious Evin prison, in the north of Tehran.

Rezaian’s trial is closed to the public, including family members, Iranian news agencies and the Washington Post reported.

Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron on Monday called the treatment of Rezaian and Salehi “disgraceful,” and said “no evidence” had been produced to support the charges.

Iranian prosecutors have said little about their case against Rezaian. In addition to the spy charge, he is also accused of “collaborating with hostile governments” and spreading propaganda, according to his lawyer Leila Ahsan.

The White House and U.S. State Department, which is facing a June deadline to strike a comprehensive deal with Iran to prevent the country from obtaining nuclear weapons, have condemned Rezaian’s imprisonment.

(c)2015 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Screenshot: Jason Rezaian and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, being interviewed by Anthony Bourdain. Via CNN/YouTube

Washington Post Journalist Faces Spy Trial In Iran

Washington Post Journalist Faces Spy Trial In Iran

Tehran (AFP) — A Washington Post reporter detained in Iran will be tried for espionage and collaborating with “hostile governments”, in a decision branded absurd Monday by the White House and the newspaper.

Jason Rezaian has been in jail for nine months in Tehran in what has become a politically sensitive case that has parallelled with high-level nuclear talks between Iran and global powers, including the United States.

The allegations against him had been shrouded in secrecy, but in a telephone call to AFP on Monday, Rezaian’s lawyer Leila Ahsan detailed the four serious offences her client faces.

As well as allegedly spying under the first two charges, the 39-year-old journalist, the Post‘s Tehran correspondent, stands accused of gathering classified information and of disseminating propaganda against the Islamic republic.

Ahsan, who said she had access to the complete criminal file, said it contained “no justifiable proof” against Rezaian, and that she had seen no legal reason to continue his detention after the case’s preliminary investigation.

But requests for bail had been turned down, said the lawyer who also criticised Iranian media for publishing allegations about Rezaian that are “wrong and contrary to reality”.

No date has yet been set for trial, Ahsan said, shortly after a senior judicial official described the dossier against the journalist, who holds both American and Iranian nationality, as “thick”.

Rezaian will face the allegations in one of the Islamic republic’s revolutionary courts, whose jurisdiction includes handling crimes against national security. Its cases are heard behind closed doors.

However Ahsan said: “Jason is a journalist and the nature of his work is to have access to information and to publish it. He had no access to confidential information, either directly or indirectly.”

Rezaian was detained in Tehran on July 22 last year, along with his Iranian wife Yeganeh Salehi, also a journalist, who was released on bail after spending two-and-a-half months in custody.

Rezaian is being held in the capital’s notorious Evin Prison and his family have frequently spoken of their fears for his health, citing his need for medication to combat high blood pressure.

But Ahsan said he was “in good spirits” despite being held in cramped conditions. He has also had no access to newspapers or media.

His mother Mary told AFP she had discussed the charges with the journalist’s wife, who remains in Tehran, but had no further comment.

‘No link’ to nuclear talks

The reporter’s detention has political resonance both because of his dual nationality and the long-running nuclear talks regarding Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said it had no official confirmation of the allegations, but if reports of Rezaian being accused of spying were true it would be “absurd” and that the charges should be “immediately dropped”.

But the journalist’s predicament would have no bearing on a nuclear deal either way, he added.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif last week said the reporter faced “very serious” allegations but it was a matter for Iran’s judiciary, insisting the case was free of political interference.

Ahsan also said the allegations against her client “had no link” with the nuclear talks, but in a nod to the diplomacy she added: “I hope this matter will accelerate the liberation of my client.”

In a rare official comment regarding Rezaian, Gholamhossein Esmaili, Tehran’s judiciary chief, said Monday: “The file is thick and contains different aspects.”

Quoted by the official IRNA news agency, he added: “In due course the judgment will be pronounced.”

In a statement, the Post‘s executive editor Martin Baron said: “The grave charges against Jason that Iran has now disclosed could not be more ludicrous.

“It is absurd and despicable to assert, as Iran’s judiciary is now claiming, that Jason’s work first as a freelance reporter and then as The Post’s Tehran correspondent amounted to espionage.”

Rezaian was among four U.S. citizens that President Barack Obama last month urged Iran to return home.

On April 2, Iran and world powers agreed the key parameters for a deal that would end a 12-year standoff about concerns that Iran is seeking a nuclear bomb, an allegation it denies. A final agreement is due by the end of June.

Photo: The detained Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, seen here in 2013, was jailed in Tehran on July 22 last year. (AFP photo)