U.S. reporter’s mother speaks while son is in Iran court

TEHRAN, Iran – The mother of detained Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian said Monday that Iran has charged her son for simply “reporting on a country that he loves,” as he addressed the judge overseeing his closed-door espionage trial.

Details of Rezaian’s second court hearing remained vague in Iranian media accounts, although the semiofficial Tasnim news agency said the 39-year-old bureau chief defended himself in English. The agency said a translator later handed Judge Abolghassem Salavati a transcript of Rezaian’s remarks in Farsi.

Rezaian faces charges including espionage and propaganda against the Islamic Republic, which the Post has said carry 10 to 20 years in prison if he is convicted. U.S. officials and rights groups have strongly criticized Rezaian’s trial, demanding he be freed.

Rezaian’s detention of over 300 days and his trial come as Iran negotiates with world powers over its contested nuclear program, leading many, including his mother, to suggest that may play a role in his case.

“Someone believes that there is an advantage to holding him,” Mary Rezaian told the Associated Press outside her son’s hearing at Tehran’s Revolutionary Court. “Personally, I do not think so.”

Standing next to his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, Mary Rezaian said her son is “very tired, very distressed.”

“He is being accused of being a master spy when all he was doing was reporting on a country that he loves. So it is very hard for him. Very, very hard for him. And of course he misses his wife,” Rezaian said. “So two years they have been married, one year he has been in prison. It is a very, very difficult thing.”