Iran jails journalist Reza Valizadeh for ‘hostile’ US collaboration

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.

In August, Valizadeh apparently posted two messages on social media, suggesting he had returned to Iran despite Radio Farda being viewed by Iran’s government as a hostile outlet.

“I arrived in Tehran on March 6, 2024. Before that, I had unfinished negotiations with the [Revolutionary Guard’s] intelligence department,” the message read in part.

“Eventually I came back to my country after 13 years without any security guarantee, even a verbal one.”

Aghasi said he was free during the first six months of his arrival and then was arrested.

Previous arrests

The news of Valizadeh’s sentencing comes after Iranian authorities on Friday arrested leading activist Reza Khandan, the husband of the prize-winning rights lawyer and campaigner Nasrin Sotoudeh, their daughter and a lawyer said.

Sotoudeh, is a lawyer who has spent much of the past decade in and out of prison, serving a myriad of sentences in cases linked to her activism.

Earlier in November, Kianoosh Sanjari, a former journalist with VOA’s Farsi service, jumped to his death from a building in Iran’s capital in protest of the country’s supreme leader and an continuing crackdown on dissent in the country.

Iranian authorities said that Sanjari, 42, had earlier demanded the release of four prisoners held in the country and threatened to kill himself if they weren’t released.

In 2007, a former Radio Farda broadcaster, Parnaz Azima, returned briefly to Iran to visit her ailing mother. Her passport was confiscated at the airport. Authorities banned her from leaving the country and summoned her repeatedly for questioning by security forces.

Finally, she was freed on bail and allowed to leave the country eight months later.