July 20, 2015
Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani
Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Via the Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran (info@daftar.org)
Your Excellency,
The Committee to Protect Journalists is dedicated to ensuring freedom of the press around the world. Today, our board of directors is writing you to urge immediate intervention in the case of our colleague, Jason Rezaian, on the one-year anniversary of his arrest. The correspondent for The Washington Post was arrested on July 22, 2014, and is being held in Evin Prison. If convicted of the charges against him, he could be sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison, according to the Post.
Never before has an international journalist been held for so long in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Our colleague has been denied any real opportunity to defend himself against the charges.
We urge you to ensure that this case is resolved immediately and that Jason returns home to his family.
Sincerely,
Sandra Mims Rowe
CPJ Chairman
Stephen J. Adler, Reuters
Andy Alexander
Christiane Amanpour, CNN International
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Freedom of Expression and Journalist Safety
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Susan Chira, The New York Times
Sheila Coronel, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Josh Friedman, Carey Institute for Global Good
Anne Garrels
Cheryl Gould
Arianna Huffington, AOL Huffington Post Media Group
Charlayne Hunter-Gault
Gwen Ifill, PBS
Steven Isenberg
Jonathan Klein, Getty Images
Jane Kramer, The New Yorker
M’hamed Krichen, Al-Jazeera
Isaac Lee, Univision
Lara Logan, CBS News
Rebecca MacKinnon
David Marash
Kati Marton
Michael Massing
Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune
Norman Pearlstine, Time Inc.
Erwin Potts
Ahmed Rashid
David Remnick, The New Yorker
Alan Rusbridger
David Schlesinger
Paul Steiger, ProPublica
Paul Tash, Tampa Bay Times
Jacob Weisberg, The Slate Group
Matthew Winkler, Bloomberg News
CC:
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani
Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations