Iranian court jails Iranian-American journalist for 10 years, lawyer says

An Iranian court has sentenced Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh to 10 years in prison for working at a US-funded radio outlet, his lawyer Mohammad Hossein Aghasi said on X on Saturday.

Iran and the US State Department earlier acknowledged the imprisonment in Iran of Valizadeh, who previously worked for Prague-based Radio Farda, an outlet under Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that is overseen by the US Agency for Global Media.

“Valizadeh’s punishment for the crime of working at Radio Farda is ten years imprisonment, a ban on residence in Tehran province and neighboring provinces, a ban on leaving the country and membership in political parties, etc. for two years,” Aghasi said.

Iran does not recognize second nationalities and treats dual nationals solely as Iranians.