Washington Post Hits Back Against Iran Court Claims

The Washington Post hit back Thursday at Iran’s allegation that a jailed journalist wrote a letter to President Barack Obama.

The newspaper’s executive editor, Martin Baron, said in a statement that Post reporter Jason Rezaian never wrote directly to the White House. Shortly after the 2008 election, Baron said, Rezaian filled out an online job application but was never hired. Three years later, he began reporting for the Post.

Rezaian, 39, the Post’s bureau chief in Tehran, is being tried in a Revolutionary Court on allegations of “espionage for the hostile government of the United States” and propaganda against the Islamic Republic, Iran’s official IRNA news agency has reported. The Post has said he faces 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency reported that a Farsi translation of what it described as a letter to Obama was read aloud, including this sentence: “In Iran, I’m in contact with simple laborers to influential mullahs.”

Baron issued a statement Thursday disputing Iran’s depiction of the document.

“Jason never wrote directly to President Obama and was never hired by the Obama administration,” Baron said.

This article appeared in print on page 2 of the May 29th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.