Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif on American Prisoner Jason Rezaian

Last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke at an event in New York organized by the New America Foundation. In response to a question about American prisoner Jason Rezaian, Foreign Minister Zarif suggested that Rezaian will have to defend himself in court against serious charges. He then asserted that although many Iranians are also imprisoned abroad, more people know about Rezaian because “the Washington Post has a much better publicity campaign.” The reality is that in addition to Rezaian, who is a dual Iranian and US citizen, there are a number of Iranians currently held in pretrial detention in Iran — including a number of opposition figures who have reportedly been held under house arrest for years without being formally charged with a crime. Moreover, all indications are that Rezaian’s pretrial detention rights have not been respected, an indication that he is unlikely to receive a fair and impartial trial. According to his attorney, the case file she received offered no evidence to support the charges lodged against Mr. Rezaian. Moreover, she has only been granted one substantial meeting with her client, and she does not anticipate another prior to his trial — making it difficult to prepare an adequate defense against the “serious charges” alluded to by Foreign Minister...

Iran Bill Amendments to Address Americans Detained in Iran

On Tuesday, the US Senate will commence what may prove to be a monumental foreign policy debate as it considers legislation to provide for Congressional review and oversight of agreements relating to Iran’s nuclear program. Among a number of amendments already filed are several intended to promote the release of US citizens currently detained in Iran. While it is unclear whether such an amendment will be included in the bill — which represents a hard-fought, delicate compromise between the Administration and both Republicans and Democrats in Congress — the amendments will at least serve to shed light on the issue of pretrial detention in Iran, and hopefully, will contribute to the potential release of Americans unlawfully detained there. One of those American detainees, Jason Rezaian, is a Washington Post reporter who has been in pretrial detention for the last 9 months. The Iranian Revolutionary Court has never publicly disclosed the charges against him, and there has yet to be a date set for trial. He has reportedly been denied treatment and was only granted access to his attorney in the last week. At the end of his speech at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner this weekend, President Obama asserted that his Administration would not rest until Mr. Rezaian is freed to return home. Regardless of the fate of well-intentioned Senate amendments advocating for the release of Americans detained in Iran, we are encouraged by the attention and commitment offered by both branches of government, and we hope they continue to work together to secure Mr. Rezaian’s...

Russia: A Complex Web of Pretrial Detention

Russia’s a tough country to be detained in.  Pretrial detention is common.  And pretrial rights and remedies are on the books.  Limits exist.  But a massive question of enforcement remains.  The European Court of Human Rights has a large number of cases finding the Russian government violated basic human rights obligations by detaining persons awaiting trial for excessively long periods of time and in poor conditions.  We’ve laid out the letter of the law in our most recent Country Profile for Russia. Our experience in Russia has been that the authorities will find hooks within the law to keep persons detained.  If the maximum detention period is met, additional charges are lodged to “start” a “new” detention period.  The diplomatic relationship between Russia and the United States makes pressing for pretrial detention rights difficult – we’ve heard that on the State Department’s list of 100 priority items with Russia, pretrial detention rights are...

Pretrial Rights in India

India has an entrenched history of pretrial detention rights abuses, from excessively long detention periods to prison overcrowding to physical abuse.  If you or a loved one is in pretrial detention in India, we hope this new country profile will provide you with valuable...