Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
VIENNA Iran released Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and three
other detained Iranian Americans on Saturday in exchange for seven people
imprisoned or charged in the United States, U.S. and Iranian officials said, a swap
linked to the imminent implementation of a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran
and six world powers.
Iranian officials said Rezaian, 39, was freed from Tehrans notorious Evin Prison
after 18 months of captivity and was to be promptly flown out of the country with
the three other released detainees.
U.S. officials subsequently confirmed the deal but were awaiting confirmation that
a Swiss plane carrying the four has left Tehran. Iran also agreed to let Rezaians
wife, Yeganeh Salehi, leave with him on the plane, the officials said.
The officials did not tie the release directly to the nuclear talks and said they had
not wanted the detained Americans to be used as leverage in the negotiations.
But, they said, completion of the nuclear deal last July greatly accelerated talks
about the prisoners.
Those freed Saturday included Saeed
Abedini, 35, of Boise, Idaho; Amir
Hekmati, 32, of Flint, Mich.; and
Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, U.S. and
Iranian officials said.
Abedini is a Christian pastor who had been
Naghmeh Abedini, holds a necklace
with a photograph of her husband,
Saeed Abedini, on Capitol Hill in
Washington, Tuesday, June 2, 2015,
during a House Foreign Affairs
Committee hearing with four people
whose family members were being
held in Iran. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Iranian news media reported that in connection with steps to implement the nuclear deal, President Obama
lifted a decades-old ban on the sale of U.S. civilian aircraft and parts to Iran. A U.S. official said the move is
among the steps that the nuclear agreement requires the United States to take on the day the accord is
implemented.
Not included in the prisoner exchange was Siamak Namazi, a Dubai-based oil
company executive who had promoted closer U.S.-Iranian ties, Iranian officials
said. He was arrested in October while visiting a friend in Tehran. In addition, the
fate of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared in March 2007 during a
visit to Irans Kish Island, remains unknown.
Namazi remains incarcerated because his charges are financial, and not political,
Fars said.
Asked about Namazi and Levinson, U.S. officials in Vienna said that talks were
continuing on their fate.
Iran has also committed to continue cooperating with the United States to
Fars named seven Iranians it said were being exchanged by the United States in the
deal: Nader Modanlou, Bahram Mechanic, Khosrow Afqahi, Arash Ghahreman,
Touraj Faridi, Nima Golestaneh and Ali Sabounchi.
Golestaneh, 30, pleaded guilty last month to cyber-hacking a U.S. defense firm in
October 2012. He was arrested in Turkey in November 2013 and extradited to the
United States in February 2015, the Justice Department said.
Notably absent from the list was Manssor Arbabsiar, an Iranian American from
Texas who pleaded guilty in 2012 to plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to
Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, who is now Saudi Arabias foreign minister. Arbabsiar
was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Joel Androphy, a lawyer for three of the Iranians to be freed by U.S. authorities,
said the Iranian Embassy told him that his three clients, who have been charged
with sanctions violations but have not yet gone to trial, have been issued a pardon
by President Obama. The administration had no immediate comment.
Kris Coratti, vice president of communications and spokeswoman for The Post, said that while we are
hopeful, we have not received any official word of Jasons release.
The exchange quickly became political fodder in the United States among
Republicans vying for the GOP presidential nomination.
Republican front-runner Donald Trump said it was a total disgrace that the
release of the Americans took so long. This should have been done three, four
years ago, when the [nuclear] deal was struck. Before the deal was made . . . they
should have said, we want our prisoners back, Trump said at a rally in New
Hampshire.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said in a television interview Saturday: Wed be
very happy for the families of the Americans who are going to be home and for
those Americans, but Id also want to hear what the other side of the deal is, if this
president is releasing more terrorists from Guantanamo to go back and reenter the
war on terror. ... We shouldnt have to swap prisoners. These folks were taken
illegally in violation of international law and they should have been released
without condition.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told reporters while campaigning in Iowa: The fact of
the matter is that this tells us everything we need to know about the Iranian regime.
That they take people hostage in order to gain concessions. And the fact that they
can get away with it with this administration I think has created an incentive for
more governments to do this around the world.
Huffman, the Rezaians congressman, called the remarks shameful. He told The
Post that Republican candidates would have said the same things no matter what
the circumstances. There are some critics of the administration that just cant
acknowledge anything good that comes from this administration.
Rezaians ordeal damaged his health, drew protests from media and human rights
groups and hampered efforts to improve relations between Washington and
Tehran. It also exposed fault lines and infighting in Irans opaque political system,
where Rezaian and other detained Americans appeared to become pawns in a larger
internal struggle between hard-liners and reformists seeking to improve ties with
the West.
Kerry frequently raised the plight of Rezaian and other imprisoned U.S. citizens
during last years nuclear negotiations, but their release was not part of
the resulting agreement between Iran and the six world powers: the United States,
Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.
When he went on trial in May last year, the court proceedings indicated that some
of the claims against Rezaian stemmed from a visit he made to a U.S. consulate
regarding a visa for his wife and a letter he wrote seeking a job in the Obama
administration in 2008 material that was apparently taken from his confiscated
laptop.
[Imprisonment took devastating toll on Post reporter]
Rezaian holds both U.S. and Iranian citizenship. But Iran, which does not recognize
dual nationality, barred any U.S. role in the case, including consular visits by Swiss
diplomats representing U.S. interests. Diplomatic relations between Washington
and Tehran were severed in 1980 during the Iranian hostage crisis.
The last of four Revolutionary Court sessions was held in August, but it was not
until October that a court spokesman announced a conviction without providing
any details. In November, the court said Rezaian was sentenced to a prison term,
again with no elaboration.
In the meantime, Iranian officials floated the idea of a prisoner swap with the
United States. President Rouhani even suggested that Tehran could free Rezaian
and at least two other Iranian American prisoners if Washington reciprocated by
releasing 19 Iranian citizens convicted in the United States of circumventing
sanctions.
As if to buttress that proposal, state-run news media in Iran then reported that
Rezaian was accused of spying on Irans nuclear programs and giving the U.S.
government information on people and companies evading sanctions.
The prisoner-swap maneuvering showed that, for Iran, Rezaians innocence was
immaterial and that what mattered more was whether he could be used to extract
political concessions from the United States, The Post argued in its latest
theories and allegations which continue to change even after the conclusion of
his trial provide yet further evidence that Rezaian has committed no crime and is
entitled to immediate release and some form of compensation for his wrongful
imprisonment, it said.
Branigin and DeYoung reported from Washington. Ellen Nakashima and Karen
DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.
Posted by Thavam