Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian was convicted in Iran on espionage charges after being detained in Tehran for more than a year, Iranian media reported Sunday.
The verdict sparked immediate backlash from U.S. lawmakers, reviving GOP-led charges against President Barack Obama’s signature Iran nuclear agreement.
Republican Reps. Lee Zeldin of New York, Peter Roskam of Illinois, and Mike Pompeo of Kansas called on the Obama administration to retain economic sanctions on Tehran until the government releases the four Americans currently imprisoned in Iran.
“The tyrannical regime in Tehran has once again shown the world its true colors with the sham conviction of an innocent American,” the congressmen said in a statement Monday. “It is disgusting to reward a country that so brazenly violates international law and abuses our fellow citizens.”
“The lives of Jason Rezaian, Amir Hekmati, Saeed Abedini, and Robert Levinson should not be a ‘concession’ in President Obama’s Iran deal,” Zeldin, Roskam and Pompeo added.
House Speaker John Boehner also pressed the president to freeze implementation of the Iran deal, noting that the same regime that “tortured, abused, and wrongly convicted” Rezaian “will be trusted to inspect itself under a nuclear deal that will give Iran legitimacy and billions in cash.”
“President Obama’s gamble that a nuclear deal would lead to a more responsible Iran has already failed,” Boehner said.
Rezaian, who was imprisoned nearly 15 months ago, has been held longer than the Americans detained during the 444-day Iranian hostage crisis. Iranian authorities have not yet announced his sentence, but reports suggest he could face 10 to 20 years in prison.
Post executive editor Marty Baron called the guilty verdict an “outrageous injustice,” adding the publication is working with Rezaian’s family and Iranian counsel to press for his immediate release.
“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,” Baron said in a statement Monday.
Rezaian, a dual citizen of the United States and Iran, was arrested in July 2014 on accusations of “spying on Iran’s nuclear programs” and providing the U.S. government with information on individuals and companies evading economic sanctions, a state-run news channel reported Monday.
“The information that Rezaian provided to the Americans resulted in many Iranian and international businessmen and companies being placed on America’s sanctions list,” the network posted on its website.
Iranian officials have fueled speculation that Tehran may pressure the U.S. for a prisoner swap that would free Rezaian along with two other American prisoners in exchange for the release of 19 Iranians jailed in the U.S. for dodging sanctions.
“I don’t particularly like the word ‘exchange,’ but from a humanitarian perspective, if we can take a step, we must do it. The American side must take its own steps,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told CBS’ “60 Minutes” in September.
U.S. officials have not confirmed negotiations of an exchange.
