MP Calls for Jason Rezaian Confession to be Broadcast

An MP has called on official Iranian media to broadcast the confession of Jason Rezaian, the Iranian-American Washington Post correspondent who has been held in Evin Prison since July. 

In September, IranWire reported that the Revolutionary Guards' Intelligence Unit had forced Rezaian to confess to charges against him, which include espionage. 

“We hope and expect that Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) would publicize Jason Rezaian’s very important confessions in his own words,” Tehran MP Hamid Resaee told reporters on February 17. He said the details of Rezaian’s confession should be made  available to the public. 

“There is also an important question at stake,” Resaee said. “Who made it possible for this individual to visit sensitive sites in Iran so he could report for the Washington Post?”, he asked.

Hamid Resaee is a member of the board of directors of parliament’s Article 90 Commission, which is responsible for investigating complaints against the judiciary, executive and legislative branches of the Iranian government.

In a brief interview with IranWire in mid-September, an Iranian security official, who withheld his name due to the sensitivity of the case, said the Guards forced Rezaian to confess in order to “influence Iran's nuclear negotiations with the Western powers, including the United States.”

Rezaian and his wife, Iranian journalist Yeganeh Salehi, were arrested on July 22, 2014 in Tehran following a raid on their house, along with two other freelance journalists.

“Even though he published quite positive reports for the Washington Post, that was not his main objective,” Hamid Resaee said. “His goal was to place pressure on our country’s industries. I cannot reveal more at this stage.”