Iranian interrogators are pressuring imprisoned Washington Post reporter to lie, his brother says

Jason Rezaian is being pressured by Iranian interrogators to lie by confessing that he spied on the Islamic Republic, his brother says. (Photo: Vahid Salemi/AP)

Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter on trial in Iran for espionage, faces “considerable” pressure from Iranian officials to confess to a crime he did not commit, his brother Ali told Yahoo News on Wednesday.

“He’s still under a considerable amount of pressure from his interrogators and others to confess — basically to perjure himself, to claim that he did something when he didn’t,” Ali Rezaian said in an interview with Yahoo News on POTUS, Sirius XM’s politics channel. But Jason Rezaian, imprisoned in the Islamic Republic since July 2014, “wants to prove himself innocent.”

Asked whether President Barack Obama’s administration has done all it can to free Jason, his brother replied: “Jason’s not home, and until he’s home, nobody’s done everything that they can.

“Whether it’s the administration, or me, or the people in Iran who claim to be not hardliners, the people that claim to be interested in normalizing relations, none of them have done enough until Jason gets out.”

Ali Rezaian said he has not spoken to his brother since two days before he was detained, but that their mother and Jason’s wife have been able to talk to him. He says that Jason has been treated differently from other prisoners in Iran.