A mother’s plea to release her journalist son from an Iranian prison
On July 22, 2014, Jason Rezaian, the Tehran bureau chief for The Washington Post, and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, were taken from their home at gunpoint and were not heard from for over two months. Rezaian, who holds dual Iranian and American citizenship, has been one of only a few Americans to be based in Iran with official permission from the Iranian authorities to work as a journalist.
On Oct. 1, after two and a half months of detainment, Salehi, who is a journalist for The National, a newspaper based in Abu Dhabi, was finally released on bail and threatened by her captors not to speak to the media about her experience. Rezaian, however, still remains in Evin Prison, without any formal public charges being filed against him, and, until recently, has been denied the medical treatment that he needs. His brother, Ali, has reported that Rezaian is “deeply depressed” and is suffering psychologically. Rezaian’s days are spent in solitary in his cell, except for hours of harsh interrogations despite his consistent plea of innocence.
“We can report that the Iranian government, having illegally detained Jason Rezaian for 222 days, has finally permitted Jason to hire a lawyer to present a defense against the still undisclosed charges that have already robbed Jason of more than seven months of his life,” Rezaian’s family said in a statement last week.
Today, Rezaian’s brother, Ali, who has been leading the family in the fight for a fair trial for Rezaian and for his immediate release, joined Douglas Jehl, the foreign editor of The Washington Post, and John Hughes, the president of the National Press Club, for a press conference, to discuss new developments. Ali announced that they are working to get Jason Rezaian released on bail during the upcoming Persian New Year, or Nowruz, as it is called in Iran. Additionally, this morning, the boxing legend Muhammad Ali shared this statement through the National Press Club: “It is my great hope that the government and judiciary of Iran will end the prolonged detention of journalist Jason Rezaian and provide him with access to all of his legal options.”
In the above video, shot and produced by Rezaian’s childhood friend and filmmaker Robbie Stauder, Rezaian’s mother, Mary, shares her heart-wrenching journey to uncover information pertaining to her son’s fate in a notorious Iranian prison, and to bring media and political attention to his captivity.
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