Post editor: Iran has given ‘no evidence’ reporter Jason Rezaian did anything wrong

In an appearance on CNN’s “Reliable Sources" with Brian Stelter on Sunday morning, Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron said the paper is doing everything to free its reporter in Tehran, who has been in prison for nine months.

Baron has been rallying for the release of The Post’s Tehran bureau chief Jason Rezaian, who has been charged with espionage and other crimes, including collecting classified information.

“There has been no evidence provided by the Iranian government that he engaged in espionage or did anything other than report on what was happening in that country,” Baron said. “In fact, most of his coverage focused on the culture and daily life of people in Iran.”

President Obama and other attendees of the 2015 White House correspondents' dinner call for release of Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post correspondent in Tehran, who has been in Iran’s Evin Prison since July 2014. (AP)

“For nine months, Jason has been in prison in Tehran for nothing more than writing about the hopes and fears of the Iranian people,” Obama said.

The president told the room full of reporters, many of whom were donning “Free Jason” pins, that he had spoken with Rezaian’s brother, Ali, who was at the dinner.

“I have told him personally that I will not rest until we bring him home to his family, safe and sound,” Obama said.

The president is among a growing chorus of government officials, including Secretary of State John F. Kerry, urging Iran to free Rezaian.

A group of Republican senators pressed the administration to make Rezaian’s release a condition for a nuclear agreement with Iran. But the administration has been averse to tying the imprisonment with the effort to block Iran’s ability to build nuclear weapons.

Rezaian, 39, has been a reporter for The Post since 2012. He and his journalist wife, Yeganeh Salehi, were arrested July 22. She was later released on bail, but Rezanian has remained in custody.

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel covers the economics of education, writing about the financial lives of students from when they take out student debt through their experiences in the job market. Before that, she wrote about the banking industry.