Tehran, Iran, October 19
By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend:
Iranian security officials have stated a long list of charges against captive Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian.
The charges, based on Jason's profession, range from efforts to form propagating a Western-friendly attitude at executive levels in the Iranian government to preparing lists for Western powers of Iranian entities that needed to be put under economic sanctions, Fars news agency reported Oct. 19.
In a long series of quotes from members of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, the report gives an account of what Jason himself confessed "19 days into incarceration" as well as the evidence found by security sources including the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC, whose representatives recently deemed it necessary to present a full report to MPs in a session with the national security committee.
It says through a decade of activity in Iran, Jason headed an extended network that had infiltrated various places as diverse as the presidential office to the foreign ministry.
It quotes Rezaian as having said that he even knew what gum the president liked most.
It also says the team had found roots in the Foreign Ministry, fully able to communicate top-level news of the ministry to overseas receivers.
According to the report, the Post journalist had also set up a team to record the on-street details of the post-2009 elections riots.
He had also led a program to observe and direct the change in the taste of the Iranian public, exemplified by how they gradually forgot the tokens they had previously adhered to as emblems of their revolution.
It also says Jason had managed to introduce many people into sensitive governmental positions that had been raised by him to be used as aides.
Rezaian was arrested together with his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, in July 2014.
Rezaian had been charged with espionage and at least three other major crimes. He was allowed to meet his lawyer for the first time in mid-May after 10 months.
While the Revolutionary Court has not disclosed official charges against Rezaian, Iranian media say the charges are related to transfer of information to the United States Central Intelligence Agency.
Edited by CN