Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif said he hopes Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, now held in Iran will be cleared of the charges he faces.
“Unfortunately,” Zarif said, “your friend and my friend, Jason, is accused of a very serious offense, and I hope that he’s cleared in a court. But he will have to face a court.”
Zarif went on to tell a New York University audience, “He is an Iranian citizen. It is unfortunate that some overzealous low-level operative tried to take advantage of him. And I don’t go into further detail because it’s a pending case before the court. And I hope that he will be cleared of that charge.”
As CNN reported earlier this month, Rezaian been jailed in Iran for nearly nine months. The Washington Post’s Tehran bureau chief was arrested in July, but It took more than four months for a judge to hear the espionage charges against him. Both the Washington Post and U.S. State Department have called the charges “absurd.”