A Washington Post reporter is being charged by Iran’s Revolutionary Court with crimes that include “collaborating with hostile governments” and “propaganda against the establishment.”
Jason Rezaian, who has been imprisoned in Iran since July 2014, has also been charged this week with espionage, the Post reported Monday, citing Rezaian’s lawyer in Tehran.
One example of Rezaian’s alleged contact with a “hostile government” includes a letter he wrote to President Obama. The indictment brought against Rezaian, who holds dual Iranian and U.S. citizenship, charges that he collected sensitive information regarding Iranian “internal and foreign policy” and then later handed it over to “individuals with hostile intent.”
The Post learned of the charges from a statement provided by Rezaian’s family and lawyer. The Revolutionary Court, which normally hears cases involving national security issues, has not yet formally announced the details of case against the Post bureau chief.
“The grave charges against Jason that Iran has now disclosed could not be more ludicrous,” the Post’s executive editor Martin Baron said in a statement following news of the details of the indictment. “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 or otherwise posed any threat to Iranian national security.”
Baron continued, characterizing the charges as “baseless,” “absurd,” “scurrilous” and the entire ordeal as “chilling.”
“In the more than 260 dark days that have passed since Jason and [Yeganeh Salehi, Rezaian’s wife and fellow journalist] were detained, Iran has shown only disdain for the concepts of humanity, fairness and the rule of law that it purports to embrace,” Baron said, accusing the Iranians of using the case as propaganda.
Rezaian, who served as the Post’s Tehran bureau chief prior to his arrest, was taken into custody by officials last year and charged in December with then-unspecified charges.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who is currently working to broker a nuclear deal with Tehran, said in December of the unspecified charges that he was “deeply disappointed and concerned” by the news.
“Jason poses no threat to the Iranian government or to Iran’s national security. We call on the Iranian government to drop any and all charges against Jason and release him immediately so that he can be reunited with his family,” Kerry said at the time in a statement.
