This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.

WaPo's Jason Rezaian Returns To Journalism 2 Years After Prison Release

WaPo's Jason Rezaian Returns To Journalism 2 Years After Prison Release
Jason Rezaian speaks in Washington, D.C., shortly after his 2016 release from prison in Iran.
Gary Cameron / Reuters
Jason Rezaian speaks in Washington, D.C., shortly after his 2016 release from prison in Iran.

Jason Rezaian, who served as The Washington Post’s Tehran bureau chief until Iran imprisoned him in 2012, is returning to journalism, the paper announced Wednesday.

Rezeian is rejoining the Post as a staff writer for WorldViews, a newsletter and blog launched last year that targets an international audience.

“For reasons that require little explanation, this is a moment for celebration,” read an announcement from the newspaper’s editors. “Jason joined The Post in 2012 as a correspondent in Iran, but his life was upended when he was detained and then unjustly imprisoned by an Iranian government that held him for 18 months in Iran’s most notorious prison.”

The announcement falls on the second anniversary of Rezaian’s release from Evin prison, where he was detained after Iranian officials arrested him in July 2014.

The following year, a closed-door Iranian court charged him with espionage and three other serious crimes, including “collaborating with hostile governments” and “propaganda against the establishment,” the Post reported. He was sentenced to prison for an undisclosed amount of time.

Rezaian was one of four Americans set free in 2016 as part of a prisoner release deal between the U.S. and Iran ― a result of 14 months of nuclear armament negotiations between the two countries.

After his release, Rezaian participated in the Nieman fellowship at Harvard University and the Terker fellowship at George Washington University’s School of Media & Public Affairs, and worked on a forthcoming book about his imprisonment.

Close
This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.