Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post correspondent who has been jailed in Iran for more than 14 months, has been convicted on espionage charges in a trial that has been condemned by the Obama Administration and groups fighting for press freedom.
The Post reports Tehran’s Revolutionary Court announced it had reached a verdict early Sunday, but the judgment was not known until later in the day.
Martin Baron, The Post’s executive editor, called the guilty verdict “an outrageous injustice” and “contemptible,” saying in a statement:
“Iran has behaved unconscionably throughout this case, but never more so than with this indefensible decision by a Revolutionary Court to convict an innocent journalist of serious crimes after a proceeding that unfolded in secret, with no evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing.”
Last November, Anthony Bourdain, who interviewed Rezaian for Parts Unknown shortly before Rezaian’s arrest, talked to CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Bourdain described the interview with Rezaian as a positive conversation about the country’s history–and future. “There was no area at all–or hint of an area–of concern.”
The arrest, Bourdain said at the time, left him “horrified…I just met and talked at length with a guy who was so positive about Iran. So positive about the possibilities for a better future.”