Final hearing is set for reporter jailed in Iran, accused of espionage
The final hearing in Iran’s espionage trial of Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post correspondent whose yearlong incarceration has helped worsen tensions with the United States, has been scheduled for Monday, the newspaper’s executive editor and Rezaian’s brother said Saturday.
They said that Rezaian’s Iranian lawyer, Leila Ahsan, had been notified of the final hearing in the trial, which has been held intermittently in a Tehran Revolutionary Court since May and has been closed to the public.
“The sham trial of Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post’s correspondent in Tehran, may now finally be nearing its end,” The Post’s executive editor, Martin Baron, said in a statement. He said the lawyer had been told that it would be “the final hearing before a verdict is reached.”
It was unclear when a verdict may be announced.
The Post, which has become increasingly outspoken in its criticism of Iran over the Rezaian case, sought intervention last month by a U.N. human rights panel to help pressure Iranian authorities into releasing him.
Rezaian’s brother, Ali, said in an email that Ah- san expected to finally be able to present her client’s defense at the Monday hearing.
Jason Rezaian, 39, an Iranian-American from California with dual citizenship, has been the Post’s correspondent in Tehran since 2012. He and his Iranian wife, Yeganeh Salehi, 30, were arrested there on July 22, 2014.
Salehi, a reporter for a United Arab Emirates newspaper, was released on bail after a few months, ordered not to work and warned not to talk about the case.
Only months later did Iranian authorities disclose the charges against Rezaian, which include espionage and hostile acts. He has remained incarcerated, much of the time in solitary confinement.
Rezaian has asserted his innocence, and Ahsan has said the government has no evidence to support the charges.
His family, friends, rights groups, the Post and the U.S. government have called the prosecution farcical.
“This is a critical moment,” Baron said. “Iran has behaved unconscionably throughout this travesty of a case. It has imprisoned an innocent journalist for more than a year and subjected him to physical mistreatment and psychological abuse.”
Rezaian is one of three Iranian-Americans with dual citizenship incarcerated by Iran. The Iranian authorities consider them Iranian citizens only.