Report: Iran Releases Jailed WaPo Reporter, 3 Others

Jason Rezaian

UPDATE 2:30PM 1/16/16:  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 Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison after 18 months of captivity and was to be promptly flown out of the country with the three other released detainees.

Iran’s judiciary announced the release in Tehran as part of an exchange, according to Iranian news media.

U.S. officials said Iran is also freeing a fifth American, a student detained in Tehran some months ago, separately from the exchange.

A senior administration offical identified the fifth American as Matthew Trevithick. “Matthew was a young man studying in Iran” and was “detained in recent months,” the official said. “We wanted him obviously to be a direct part of this, and made clear to Iranians that [his release] would be an appropriate humanitarian gesture.”

Trevithick’s family said in a statement that he went to Iran in September for a four-month language program only to be arrested and spend 40 days in Evin Prison.

UPDATE 11:15am 1/16/16: Iran has released four U.S.-Iranian dual citizens for prison, state television said on Saturday, naming them as Jason Rezaian, Amir Hekmati, Saeed Abedini and Nosratollah Khosravi.

State news agency IRNA said the United States would also release seven Iranian nationals from jail as part of a prisoner swap. The exchange came as a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers was set to be implemented, leading to the lifting of international sanctions on Tehran.

Earlier Posting...

Four U.S. citizens imprisoned in Iran, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, have been freed in a prisoner swap.

All four are duel U.S.-Iranian citizens, according to the semiofficial Mehr and Fars news agencies. Rezaian has been held since July 2014. There was no official confirmation from the United States.

News of the exchange came as world leaders converged in Vienna Saturday in anticipation of the end of international sanctions against Iran in exchange for significantly curtailing its nuclear program.

The nuclear agreement will take effect when the International Atomic Energy Agency certifies that Iran has met its commitments under the deal it signed last July with six global powers, including the United States.

Secretary of State John F. Kerry flew from London to Vienna in the early afternoon local time. He went immediately into a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the Coburg Palace Hotel, the scene of months-long final negotiations last summer that led to the deal between Iran and the world powers.