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Why the Media Should Not Forget Iran’s Detention of Jason Rezaian

Haleh Esfandiari headhsot

The Iranian judiciary has extended its detention of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian by as much as two months. Haleh Esfandiari gives three possible reasons for the continued imprisonment of an innocent journalist.

The Iranian judiciary’s decision to extend its detention of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian by as much as two months reminded me of a traumatic moment during my own incarceration at Evin prison in 2007.

Ten weeks into my imprisonment, I was summoned by one of my female guards to see my interrogator. He stood by the entrance to the ward for women political prisoners, holding a piece of paper. Because the Intelligence Ministry was not finished with my interrogation, he said, my detention had been extended by two months. I was devastated. I had hoped to be released at the end of my original three-month detention order, which then was nearly over. But my interrogator asked me to read and sign the document he held—an absurd request, as I had no say in the matter and would remain in prison whether or not I signed his paper.

So, too, with Jason Rezaian. Human Rights Watch and the Post have reported that Mr. Rezaian’s new detention order was issued Nov. 18, one week before the expiration of the four-month detention order that accompanied his arrest. He has been in prison, without charge, since July. Iran’s judiciary has yet to issue a clear reason for his arrest or allow him meaningful access to his lawyer.

Three explanations come to mind for this continued imprisonment of an innocent journalist. First, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry remains obsessed with proving that there is an American plot, involving journalists, academics, and intellectuals, to overthrow the Islamic Republic. Jason Rezaian is only the latest of a number of Iranian-Americans and other dual nationals who have been victimized to this end. So far, the Intelligence Ministry has always come empty. The occasional coerced “confession” has persuaded no one, in Iran or abroad; nor has it sated the ministry’s need to keep making its case.

Second, we must conclude that Iran’s Intelligence Ministry has been unable to marshal convincing evidence to build a solid case against Mr. Rezaian–not even a case that would stand up to scrutiny in Iran’s usually pliant revolutionary courts, let alone the court of world opinion. So Mr. Rezaian must remain in prison as his interrogators prove their diligence to their superiors by further inflating their dossiers on his case. Clearly, it would be difficult to argue on, say, the basis of Mr. Rezaian’s reporting on the popularity of  baseball in Iran that he was furthering an American plot to corrupt Iranian youth.

Third, Iranian interrogators seem also to have been unable to coerce Mr. Rezaian into “confessing” that  he was wittingly or unwittingly advancing Washington’s nefarious intentions toward Iran through his journalist activities. So, they continue to hold him at Evin and pressure him in hopes that they can break him.

Absent international attention to this unfair incarceration, Iran’s judiciary will feel no pressure to release Jason Rezaian. Yet the regime abhors attention to its human rights record. This is why the media should not forget Jason. His own newspaper needs to be far more vocal in condemning his continued detention and pressing for his release.

The views expressed here are solely those of the author.

This article was first published in The Wall Street Journal.

About the Author

Haleh Esfandiari headhsot

Haleh Esfandiari

Distinguished Fellow; Director Emerita, Middle East Program 
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Middle East Program

The Wilson Center’s Middle East Program serves as a crucial resource for the policymaking community and beyond, providing analyses and research that helps inform U.S. foreign policymaking, stimulates public debate, and expands knowledge about issues in the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.  Read more