“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.
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Baron said there would be an appeal, and Ahsan is expected to ask the court to release Rezaian on bail until a final resolution is made.
These include his brother Ali and his colleagues and employers, especially Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron, who was quick to issue a statement following the apparent conviction, criticizing Iran for still failing to present any evidence whatsoever to justify its increasingly elaborate accusations. Iran arrests, imprisons and convicts one of our reporters for espionage.
Iran presently holds several Americans in captivity in addition to Rezaian including former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Robert Levinson, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini.
He called the verdict a “contemptible” end to the case and said Iranian leaders have an obligation to “right this grievous wrong”.
Leila Ahsan, Rezaian’s lawyer, said Sunday that “there are no new developments” and that she had not received the verdict yet, the Associated Press reported.
“Iran has behaved unconscionably throughout this case…”
Iran accused Rezaian, 39, of collecting confidential information and giving it to hostile governments, writing a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama and acting against Iran’s national security.
“We still have not seen any official confirmation of a verdict on specific charges or any further information”, he said. Salehi, also a journalist, has since been released, but Rezaian has remained in jail.
She said Rezaian was passionate about teaching Americans about his father’s homeland and Iranians about the United States, where his mother was born.
Later, Ali Rezaian told CNN that his brother had heard about his own conviction “on Iranian TV”.
“We are not going to relent until we bring home our Americans who are unjustly detained in Iran”. But details of the verdict handed down to the Post correspondent, who has languished in prison for more than 14 months, are sketchy at best.
“He is an innocent man that has been kept under harsh conditions to the detriment of his health and wellbeing for almost 450 days”, Mr Rezaian’s brother Ali said in a statement.
Rezaian’s incarceration and trial played out against the backdrop of negotiations between Iran and five world powers, including the USA, that resulted in an agreement for Iran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. He was arrested in July 2014 and held for months without formal charges.
Last month, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani indicated his government would work to free Razaian and two other Americans from prisons in Iran if the United States released jailed Iranians.
“We urge the Obama Administration not to lift any economic sanctions until Iran vacates this absurd judgment and releases all four Americans wrongly imprisoned by Iran”.
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Ejehi discussed Rezaian’s case during a press conference earlier Sunday that was restricted to Iranian media.
