Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post journalist who has been jailed in Iran for more than 500 days, was allowed a Christmas Day visit with his wife and mother.
“After several efforts, Yegi and I were able to secure permission from the court to meet with Jason for several hours today, Christmas,” Rezaian’s mother, Mary, said in an email Friday to the Post. Yegi is Rezaian’s wife, Yeganeh Salehi, an Iranian citizen who is a correspondent for The National, a newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates.
"This is the first time in the year that I have been visiting him in Evin Prison that I could spend an extended time there and bring him his first home-cooked meal in months,'' Mary Rezaian wrote.
Iran announced last month that Rezaian had been sentenced to an undisclosed prison term following his conviction on espionage and other charges in October. But no details of the verdict or sentence have been released.
Earlier this month, when Rezaian's detention reached the 500-day mark, Post editor Martin Baron called it the "grimmest" of milestones, noting that it was 56 days longer than Tehran held U.S. Embassy workers following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
"Five hundred days robbed of his life, 500 days deprived of his family, 500 days denied any semblance of justice," Baron said.
