A U.S. journalist detained in Iran has been indicted and will stand trial on charges that have not yet been made clear by Iranian officials.
The indictment against the Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian, who has been detained in Iran since July 2014, was handed down Wednesday.
“We still do not know what charges the Iranian authorities have brought against our correspondent Jason Rezaian, but we hope the referral of his case to a Revolutionary Court represents a step forward toward Jason’s prompt release,” Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner.
“This step gives Iran’s judiciary an opportunity to demonstrate its fairness and independence by determining that the charges are baseless. We call on Iran to make these charges public, to allow Jason access to a lawyer and to bring a swift and just resolution of a six-month-long nightmare that has been extremely difficult for Jason and his family,” Baron said.
Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi announced the indictment Wednesday, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
Although it’s unclear what charges have been brought against Rezaian, IRNA reported that he would stand trial in Iran’s Revolutionary Court, which typically hears cases involving national security issues, according to the Associated Press.
Rezaian was charged last month, but “the bill of indictment clears the way for his trial,” the AP reported, adding that he “his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, and two photojournalists initially were detained July 22 in Iran’s capital, Tehran. All later were released except Rezaian.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, who met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Wednesday to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, said earlier that he hoped the situation involving the U.S. journalist could be “resolved.”
“We will have to wait for the judiciary to move forward, but we will try to provide all the humanitarian assistance that we could,” Zarif said in Geneva. “We hope that this issue could be resolved but unfortunately there are judicial issues involved which the judiciary has to deal with.”
Rezaian, who is of America-Iranian descent and holds a dual citizenship, has been the Washington Post’s bureau chief in Tehran since 2012.
