THE FRAUDULENCE of Iran’s prosecution of The Post’s Jason Rezaian is perfectly captured by the public statements of Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, the first deputy chief justice of the judiciary, who frequently holds news conferences in Tehran.
Advertisement
November 22, 2015: This Sunday, Rezaian was sentenced to a prison term of undisclosed length.
“In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters he was aware of the IRNA report but could not independently confirm it. It was not clear why Iran has not given details of the ruling against the 39-year-old Rezaian, who Iranian prosecutors accused of espionage”, Reuters reports. “The trial will continue and when the verdict is issued we will announce it to people”, he said.
The agencies report that all Ejel would say is that a judge handed down a sentence and an appeal is pending.
Since Rezaian’s arrest, The Post has maintained that he is innocent and called for his immediate release. “I can not announce the details.’ Rezaian’s employer said it had no more information about the report”. “If true, we call on the Iranian authorities to vacate this sentence and immediately free Jason so that he can be returned to his family”.
A dual citizen in both countries, Rezaian had spent the past three years as The Post’s Tehran correspondent before being arrested by the ruthless Islamic regime for supposedly spying against Iran for the U.S. Iranian state media did not disclose on Sunday the terms for which Rezaian had been convicted of.
Douglas Jehl, The Post’s foreign editor, said Iran has still presented no evidence of wrongdoing, the newspaper reported.
The charges against Rezaian include “disseminating propaganda against the establishment” and “collaborating with hostile governments”.
Advertisement
“I have no information about details of the verdict”, she said. “Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron said in October that the “vague and puzzling” statement from the Iranian judiciary ‘only adds to the injustice” surrounding the Rezaian case.
