The frustrating “espionage” case against Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian was awash in silence and no apparent movement Sunday.
For sure, there had been speculation that the legal and political status quo would change.
There have been, after all, the tentative nuclear deal with Iran, a Washington Post request to the United Nations and President Obama repeating his chagrin over the reporter’s imprisonment during a recent White House press conference.
But another week has passed without a hint. There was no news again Sunday, Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron told Poynter.
Hooman Majd, a New York-based Iran expert and NBC News contributor who also covered the recent talks in Vienna for Vanity Fair, told us, “I believe the judiciary does not want to link Jason in any way to the nuclear deal.”
“As such, it looks like they are creating space between the deal and when there’ll be a final verdict.”
There have been three actual days of trial. But without even his family allowed inside, there’s no reliable account of what’s played out. He was arrested more than a year ago.
Last week, an obviously frustrated Washington Post protested Iran’s handling of Rezaian in a petition to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
