{"id":857,"date":"2015-10-29T17:29:17","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T17:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=857"},"modified":"2015-10-29T17:29:17","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T17:29:17","slug":"ellison-calls-for-immediate-release-of-washington-post-reporter-jason-rezaian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=857","title":{"rendered":"Ellison Calls for Immediate Release of Washington Post Reporter Jason Rezaian\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Jason Rezaian<\/p><\/div>\n

October 28, 2015\u2014The US Congressional Representative from Minnesota, Keith Ellison, called today in a video message for the \u201cunconditional release of Jason Rezaian.\u201d \u201cI call on the Iranian government to recognize that the truth should never be a crime, and Rezaian must be released immediately,\u201d said Congressman Ellison, in an exclusive video\u00a0by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.<\/p>\n

Ellison, democrat and representative for Minnesota\u2019s 5th congressional district since 2007, was the first Muslim to be elected to the US Congress and is presently one of only two Muslim members of the Congress.
\nRezaian, the Washington Post\u2019s Tehran reporter, has been imprisoned in Iran since July 2014, and was convicted in October 2015 on charges of \u201cspying and cooperation with an enemy government,\u201d \u201cpropaganda against the state,\u201d and \u201cacting against national security\u201d in a prosecution and trial that lacked any semblance of due process at very stage.
\n\u201cAny time a journalist has to fear telling the truth so the people could be informed, simply because somebody in power doesn\u2019t like it, then the freedom of everybody is in jeopardy,\u201d Ellison asserted.
\nRezaian was\u00a0arrested\u00a0and detained for nine months before any\u00a0charge\u00a0was announced. He was held in solitary confinement for five\u00a0months\u2014a tactic common in Iran when the authorities wish to isolate and exert pressure on an individual in order to extract false \u201cconfessions.\u201d Rezaian was denied access to counsel for months after his arrest and subsequently forced to accept a lawyer approved by the court. During the trial, Rezaian\u2019s lawyer, Leila Ahsan,\u00a0publicly stated she was not allowed to fully\u00a0respond\u00a0to the prosecution\u2019s arguments.
\nSaid Congressman Ellison, \u201cWe care about you, and even more important than that, we care what you stand for, which is informing the people, without fear or favor.\u201d
\nA transcript of Congressman Ellison\u2019s October 23, 2015 message follows:
\nHello Everyone,
\nMy name is Congressman Keith Ellison and I want to send a message on behalf of Jason Rezaian.\u00a0 He is a journalist for the Washington Post, and he\u2019s been working very hard for many years to tell the truth and to get the truth out to the people.\u00a0 Unfortunately, he is being convicted of charges in Iran, which say that he was hurting the reputation of the establishment, or something like that.\u00a0 The fact is that this is [what] all journalists do throughout the entire world.\u00a0 They tell the truth without fear or favor of the people in power, and any time a journalist has to fear telling the truth so the people could be informed, simply because somebody in power doesn\u2019t like it, then the freedom of everybody is in jeopardy.
\nI call for the unconditional release of Jason Rezaian, right now.\u00a0 I call on the Iranian government to recognize that the truth should never be a crime, and Rezaian must be released immediately.\u00a0 On behalf of Jason Rezaian\u2019s family, I want to offer my sincere sympathies for you.\u00a0 I know that this is painful for you.\u00a0 He\u2019s been in custody for 500 days now.\u00a0 Even though the court convicted him \u2013 they haven\u2019t given his sentence.\u00a0 His sentence should be ended now.\u00a0 He should be released, now.\u00a0 He should be restored to his family, now.\u00a0 And, if Mr. Rezaian \u2013 if you get this message \u2013 I want you to know that we are pulling for you.\u00a0 We care about you, and even more important than that, we care what you stand for, which is informing the people, without fear or favor.
\nFollow the\u00a0Campaign on Facebook and Twitter
\nFor the latest human rights developments in Iran visit the Campaign\u2019s website
\nFor interviews, contact:
\nHadi Ghaemi at +1-917-669-5996, hadighaemi@iranhumanrights.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 28, 2015\u2014The US Congressional Representative from Minnesota, Keith Ellison, called today in a video message for the \u201cunconditional release of Jason Rezaian.\u201d \u201cI call on the Iranian government to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[154],"class_list":["post-857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-jason-rezaian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":858,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions\/858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}