The caption said it showed the two men before taking off for the United States from Saarbruecken, Germany, on Friday. “I am thrilled to be going to the United States and thankful beyond words for the overwhelming support Jason and our family have received from so many people”.
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Bezos celebrated Rezaian’s release in a tweet on Sunday.
His release was the result of a carefully negotiated prisoner swap between the United States and Iran. Throughout the sentence, his family and coworkers at the Post campaigned the US and Iranian government endlessly for his freedom.
Rezaian’s mother, Mary, also accompanied him on the flight home.
US journalist Jason Rezaian gestures next to his wife Yeganeh Salehi in Landstuhl, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016.
Rezaian, the Washington Post’s Tehran bureau chief since 2012, was arrested on July 22, 2014, along with his wife, when Iranians raided their apartment.
“Like all of us, he is incredibly happy they are safe and sound”, Post spokesperson Kristine Coratti Kelly was quoted by the newspaper as saying of Bezos.
Rezaian was sprung last Saturday along with Amir Hekmati, a former Marine who had been held since 2011, Saeed Abedini, a Christian pastor imprisoned since 2012, and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari. “I am feeling well and plan to relax and enjoy home-cooked meals, sports and movies with them over the next few days and weeks”.
“I was at a point where I had just sort of accepted the fact that I would be spending 10 years in prison, and so this is, it was a surprise”, he said after landing in Detroit on Thursday.
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Rezaian’s brother, Ali, said in an interview earlier this week, “The Iranians, as they have done all along, continued to manipulate them, continued to try to mess with them, and prevented Yegi [Salehi] from leaving for some period of time, but thanks to the Swiss and thanks to the Americans, she came home with him”.
