Jason Rezaian

Jason Rezaian (born 20 November 1976) is an Iranian-American journalist who served as Tehran bureau chief for The Washington Post. On 22 July 2014, he and his wife Yeganeh Salehi were arrested by Iranian authorities at their Tehran home. Salehi was released after two months; Rezaian was held in Evin Prison for 544 days — one of the longest detentions of a journalist in Iranian history. He was charged with espionage, propaganda against the state, collecting classified information, and providing it to hostile governments, charges he and the Post denied.

On 16 January 2016, Rezaian was released as part of a prisoner exchange negotiated alongside the implementation of the JCPOA nuclear deal. The exchange involved four Iranian-Americans held by Iran and seven Iranians held or sought by the United States. His case drew widespread international condemnation and focused global attention on Iran's systematic use of dual-national detentions as diplomatic leverage.

After his release, Rezaian returned to writing for the Post and published a memoir, Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison (2019), recounting his detention. He has become an outspoken advocate on behalf of other dual-national detainees and a prominent commentator on US-Iran relations.