He emphasized that the defendants of the case have a 20-day deadline to file an objection to the verdict and appeal to a higher court, adding that if they do not do so, the ruling, of which he gave no details, will be final.
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On Friday, The Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian, a US citizen and journalist seized in his home July 22, 2014, spent his 445th day in detention.
Rezaian’s trial began in May under a cloak of secrecy.
Rezaian was not told for months of the charges against him.
“Jason has been subjected to a secret, sham trial, solitary confinement, relentless interrogations, physical mistreatment and psychological abuse”, Martin Baron, executive editor of The Post, said, the Washington Times reports. The State Department, the Post and Rezaian’s family have all proclaimed his innocence, and said he was acting exclusively as a journalist. Prosecutors eventually accused him of espionage and other offenses, including “collaborating with a hostile government” and “propaganda against the establishment”, according to the Post.
In a speech this summer, Obama mentioned Rezaian and other Americans “who are unjustly detained in Iran”. United Nations staff, as well as human rights specialists from several countries and non-governmental organizations, expressed broad support for Jason and were steadfast in their calls for Jason’s immediate release.
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Friday marks a somber milestone in the saga of jailed American journalist Jason Rezaian.
