Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian is free, Iran news outlet says




New York, January 16, 2016–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes reports citing the Iranian Fars News Agency that say Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian has been freed as part of a prisoner swap deal, after more than 544 days in prison in Iran.

“We welcome news of the release of Jason Rezaian, who should never have been imprisoned in the first place,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, from Washington. “The farce of a judicial process that kept him in custody for 544 days has earned Tehran nothing but scorn from the international community. The Iranian government should begin taking steps immediately to improve its press freedom record by releasing all journalists imprisoned in relation to their work.”

Rezaian is to be freed along with three other Iranian-American dual nationals, according to the Fars News Agency, which quoted Tehran’s prosecutor, and other reports today. A spokesperson for The Washington Post released a statement today saying, “While we are hopeful, we have not received any official word of Jason’s release.” A spokesperson at the U.S. state department told CPJ this morning it was unable to confirm Rezaian’s release.

Rezaian was arrested in July 2014. On October 12, 2015, Iranian media reported that he had been convicted, according to the Post. The following month, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, a spokesman for Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, confirmed to Iranian media that Rezaian had been sentenced to prison but did not specify the length of the sentence. Charges against Rezaian included espionage, which he denied, according to reports.

The Washington Post correspondent has been held longer than any other international prisoner in Iran. In July 2015, a year after his arrest, CPJ’s board urged Iran’s leaders to intervene in Rezaian’s case. With 19 journalists behind bars, Iran was the third worst jailer of journalists in the world in 2015, according to CPJ’s annual prison census.

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