Iran jails journalist Reza Valizadeh for ‘hostile’ US collaboration
Al Jazeera
The Iranian-American journalist has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to his lawyer.
A court in Iran has sentenced Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh to 10 years in prison after finding him guilty of “collaborating with the hostile US government”, according to his lawyer.
Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, the lawyer of Valizadeh, told The Associated Press news agency that the Tehran Revolutionary Court issued the first-instance verdict a week ago and it can be appealed within 20 days.
Aghasi added that he has not been able to meet with Valizadeh since the verdict was issued.
“Valizadeh’s punishment for the crime of working at Radio Farda is ten years imprisonment, a ban on residence in Tehran province and neighbouring provinces, a ban on leaving the country and membership in political parties, etc. for two years,” Aghasi said on X.
Reza Valizadeh is a former journalist for the US-government-funded Voice of America’s Farsi language service and also has worked for Radio Farda, an outlet under Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that is overseen by the US Agency for Global Media.
