Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent detained in Iran on unspecified charges for more than seven months, has been granted access to a lawyer, though not the one his family chose to represent him.
Rezaian, a dual Iranian American citizen from California, was imprisoned under dubious circumstances in July 2014, after security forces raided his home in Tehran. He was arrested at gunpoint along with his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, who is also a journalist, and two American photojournalists. Only Rezaian remains jailed, at Evin prison in Tehran; his wife was allowed out of jail on bail in October and warned to stop working.
Rezaian’s family said in a statement that the journalist has still not been allowed to meet the attorney they hired to defend him.
“For nearly a month our family’s chosen attorney Masoud Shafii has worked tirelessly under pressure from the judiciary to be assigned as Jason’s attorney. It is clear that despite his best efforts Mr Shafii will not be permitted to represent Jason,” Ali, his brother, and Mary, his mother, said in a joint statement.
Shafii, who has experience handling cases of national security, previously helped win the release of two American hikers arrested along the Iran-Iraq border in July 2009 and imprisoned as spies at the same notorious Tehran prison for 781 days.
The family said Leila Ahsan, who represented Salehi, has been appointed as Rezaian’s lead attorney.
“We are hopeful that her knowledge of the case and access to the files will ensure that there are no further unwarranted delays in the process,” the family said.
Under Iranian law, each defendant is permitted to have up to three attorneys. “We will continue to augment the defense team that we hope will include Mr Shafii so Jason can finally have full access to his rights under Iranian law,” the family’s statement said.
Rezaian was formally charged in January, but the charges against him have still not been made public, Ali said. The trial is due to begin “soon” in Iran’s revolutionary court, which traditionally handles cases involving political and national security crimes.
Rezaian’s case has been assigned to Abolghassem Salavati, a hardline judge known in Iran for leading numerous unfair trials, including many that resulted in execution. Salavati is among a group of six judges who human rights groups accuse of losing their judicial impartiality and overseeing miscarriages of justice in trials in which journalists, lawyers, political activists and members of Iran’s ethnic and religious minorities were condemned to lengthy prison terms, lashes and even execution.
The Washington Post’s executive editor, Martin Baron, echoed the family’s statement, and called on the court to grant Rezaian access to his full legal team.
“At every turn, Iran’s handling of Jason’s case has served to reinforce an impression of state-sponsored injustice, as demonstrated by seven months of harsh incarceration without counsel or consular access,” Baron said.
“It is imperative that a defense team now being led by Leila Ahsan be augmented and be granted full, immediate access to Jason and his case file in order to begin the task of winning his freedom against charges that have not yet been publicly disclosed.”