Iran charges Washington Post journalist

Iran has formally charged a Washington Post journalist who has been detained in the country for around five months, the paper reported.

However, it reported that the nature of the charges being levelled at Jason Rezaian, the newspaper’s bureau chief in Tehran, were not clear to those in the Tehran court. Sources told the Washington Post that Rezaian spent around 10 hours in court while a judge reviewed his case and that he was accompanied by a translator.  Rezaian signed a document saying he understood that he was being charged, the Washintron Post added.

US-Iranian citizen Jason Rezaian, 38, and his Iranian wife Yeganeh Salehi were taken into custody in July. Salehi, also a journalist, was released on bail in October. Iran does not realize dual nationality.

“We are dismayed and outraged by reports that Jason Rezaian, the Post’s correspondent in Iran, has now been charged with unspecified crimes,” Washington Post’s Executive Editor Martin Baron said.  "The Iranian government has never explained why Jason was detained or why he has been held for more than four months without access to a lawyer.

"Jason is an American citizen who was acting as a fully accredited journalist. If he has indeed been charged, we know that any fair legal proceeding would quickly determine that any allegations against him are baseless."

Rezaian’s family have said that he is suffering from multiple health problems during his detention at Tehran’s Evin prison. The Rezaian case has repeatedly been brought up by the U.S. State Department in talks with Iran regarding their nuclear programme, the Washington Post said.