Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post's bureau chief in Tehran, was sentenced to jail for espionage and other charges by Iranian authorities.
He's been sentenced to an unspecified amount of time, NBC News reported.
Rezaian, who's been detained for 480-plus days in Iran, has denied all charges, and so has his newspaper and family. He was convicted anyway in October, but Tehran authorities never specified his exact alleged violations. Rather, they simply accused him of espionage and some other charges, as previously reported by WND.
The State Department didn't confirm the sentencing.
"We've seen the reports of a sentence in the case of U.S. citizen Jason Rezaian in Iran but cannot confirm the details ourselves at this time," said John Kirby, a spokesman for the State Department, NBC News reported. "If true, we call on the Iranian authorities to vacate this sentence and immediately free Jason so that he can be returned to his family."
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The Washington Post, meanwhile, said its executives were "aware of the reports" about the sentencing, but couldn't confirm its truthfulness, either.
"Every day that Jason is in prison is an injustice," said the newspaper's foreign editor, Douglas Jehl, in a statement reported by NBC News. "He has done nothing wrong."