Prisoner 951 is BBC One's latest factual drama series. It centres around the heartbreaking story of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who in 2016 was detained in Iran and sentenced to five years in prison for plotting to overthrow the Iranian government. Zaghari-Ratcliffe's imprisonment was part of a long-running dispute between Britain and Iran, which sparked a high-profile release campaign, driven by her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, that ended up with over 3.5 million supporters in 155 countries.
Alongside Zaghari-Ratcliffe's story, there are other notable figures spotlighted in the show, too. One of them is Jason Rezaian, an Iranian-American journalist, who was also imprisoned by the Iranian authorities. Rezaian, who was The Washington Post's Tehran bureau chief at the time of his arrest, served 544 days between July 2014 and January 2016. Following his release, he authored a book in 2019 called Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison, which detailed his experience in captivity.
But, what actually happened to Jason Rezaian, and where is he now?
What happened to Jason Rezaian?
In 2012, Rezaian was appointed bureau chief for The Washington Post in Tehran. While living in Iran, he met his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, who was also a journalist and Iranian national. Two years later, on 22 July 2014, Rezaian, then 39, was arrested, alongside his wife at their home in Tehran. They were accused of espionage.
While Salehi was released after two and a half months, Rezaian was kept in solitary confinement in Tehran's notorious Evin prison — the same place Zaghari-Ratcliffe was incarcerated. Rezaian would remain in isolation for nine months until he was officially charged with espionage and distributing propaganda against the Islamic Republic.
Eventually, Rezaian was subjected to a closed door trial in a Revolutionary Court. He was denied access to his lawyer, and his family were forbidden from attending. In October 2015, Iranian state television revealed the court had delivered a guilty verdict, with judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei stating: "In brief, it is a prison sentence." Despite an exact length not being disclosed at the time, reports suggested it could have been up to 20 years.
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According to the BBC, Rezaian was permitted occasional phone calls and meetings with Salehi and his mother, Mary. Both reported that his incarceration — and solitary confinement — had turned Rezaian into a shell of a person. They told reporters that he had been deprived of his blood pressure medication, and had suffered several serious infections. Rezaian's brother, Ali, told The Guardian in 2014 that his prison cell was bare, and he was being forced to sleep on the hard floor. Ali also revealed that during the first months of Rezaian's incarceration his brother lost almost 20% of his body weight.
Ali said: "It's a horrible situation for him to be in, especially because he hasn't done anything to be in there in the first place. He knows what's going on. He knows that he's the longest-held western journalist now and it's taken a real toll on him. His mental situation is really at risk."
Like Zaghari-Ratcliffe's high profile detention, Rezaian received plenty of international support, too. President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon repeatedly called for his release, along with other detained Americans. Rezaian's employer, The Washington Post, ran internal and public campaigns, and coined the widespread use of the hashtag #FreeJason.
Rezaian's brother Ali led a Change.org petition that accumulated over 530,000 signatures, while his mother travelled to Tehran to campaign for her son's freedom.
On 16 January, 2016, after a traumatic 544 days, it was announced that Rezaian had finally been released from prison with three other US prisoners. The prisoner exchange released seven Iranian prisoners, plus the drop of charges against 14 other Iranians.
Where is Jason Rezaian now?
According to Rezaian's LinkedIn, he still works at The Washington Post, and lives in Washington. However, in 2025, he lists his role as Director of Press Freedom initiatives. Rezaian's LinkedIn bio says: "Washington Post Journalist. Longtime Iran Correspondent. Former Hostage, now leading Hostage expert. Press Freedom defender. Author, Podcast Host, Public Speaker, & sometimes Persian Rug Merchant."
Rezaian also serves as the Chairperson of the Board for the Press Freedom Center at the National Press Club and is on the Board of Advisors for the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.
Rezaian is active on social media, too, boasting 11.4K followers on Instagram. His Insta bio states he is the host of the 544 Days podcast, a Spotify Original podcast that "chronicles [Rezaian's] experience, the efforts to free him, and the high-stakes world of nuclear diplomacy." His aforementioned memoir, Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison, received significant media attention and praise.
When speaking on 60 Minutes Australia in 2020, Rezaian said that his ordeal will "haunt him until the day that [he] dies." He said the first 49 days of his imprisonment, in which he was kept in solitary confinement, were the "hardest thing" he's ever had to endure. At the time, (which was five years on from his detention), Rezaian said he was still dealing with the "emotional and psychological scars" of the experience.
Prisoner 951 is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
Sophie Williams is a Freelance Journalist and Copywriter, covering everything from Fashion to Entertainment to music, Lifestyle and Features. She has interviewed a range of musical artists and authors including Alyssa Edwards, Courtney Barnett, Confidence Man, The Vaccines, Loyle Carner, Gabrielle, and John Niven, and has written for publications like Metro, Reader's Digest, ITV's Woo! and Vice’s NBGA. She is also working on a book for HarperCollins about Taylor Swift, due to be published in 2024.
