Jason Rezaian (; born on March 16, 1976) is an Iranian-American journalist who served as Tehran bureau chief for The Washington Post. He was convicted of espionage in a closed-door trial in Iran in 2015. On July 22, 2014, Iranian authorities arrested Rezaian and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, and took the couple into custody, accusing them of espionage. While Salehi – also a journalist – was released on October 6, Rezaian remained in custody at Evin Prison, a detention center in Tehran known for housing political prisoners and intellectuals. After nine months, it was made public on April 20, 2015, that Iranian authorities had indicted him on four charges, including espionage and "propaganda against the establishment". His trial began on May 26, 2015. His conviction was announced on October 11, 2015. On November 22, 2015, Iranian officials said he had been sentenced to a prison term, the length of which was not disclosed. On January 16, 2016, it was announced that he had been released. Biography Rezaian was born March 15, 1976, and raised in Marin County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. He attended Wheaton Central High School in Wheaton, Illinois, in his freshman and sophomore years from 1990 to 1992, before transferring to Marin Academy in San Rafael, California, where he got his high school diploma. He holds both American and Iranian citizenship. His late father, Taghi, immigrated to the U.S. from Iran in 1959; and belonged to a Shia family who were caretakers of the Shia shrine in Mashhad, Iran. His mother, Mary (née Breme), of Evangelical Christian heritage originally from Chicago, moved from the U.S. to Turkey following her husband's death. Rezaian also has one brother. Rezaian had been based in Iran as a journalist since 2009. Before becoming the Post'''s Tehran correspondent in 2012, he wrote for other publications such as the San Francisco Chronicle and Monocle. His wife, Yeganeh Salehi, is an Iranian citizen who is a correspondent for The National, a newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates. After Salehi was arrested, her press credentials were revoked. Rezaian was the 2016 recipient of the McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Rezaian wrote a book, Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison, published in January 2019, detailing his experience in captivity in Iran. He released a podcast, 544 days, in 2021. Arrest and detention