Iran says US reporter Jason Rezaian sentenced to prison

Iran has sentenced Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian to prison, the country’s judiciary spokesman said Sunday, without specifying the length of his jail term.

“The verdict includes a prison term,” Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeie was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

Rezaian has been in jail in Iran for more than a year and had stood trial on charges of espionage.

“The verdict for Jason Rezaian has been issued but not officially communicated” to his lawyer, said Mohseni Ejeie.

“I cannot announce the details.”

Rezaian, 39, was arrested in July 2014 at his home in Tehran where he had been working as a correspondent for the American newspaper for two years.

He appeared four times since May behind closed doors at Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, a special tribunal that presides over politically charged cases or those related to national security.

Mohseni Ejeie announced on October 11 that a verdict had been “issued” and that it could be appealed after being delivered.

Iranian authorities have since refrained from formally announcing the verdict.

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 Rezaian’s case.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on October 17 that Iran was trying to resolve the case against the Iranian-American reporter “from a humanitarian point of view”.

The United States has repeatedly called for Rezaian to be freed.