Tehran: Iranian authorities "continued to manipulate" Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian until the moment he was released with four other Americans in a prisoner swap over the weekend, his brother said on Monday.
A deal had been negotiated between Washington and Tehran for the swap but at the last minute, Iranian authorities tried to stop the Iranian-American journalist's wife, Yeganeh Salehi, from leaving with him, Ali Rezaian told CNN.
"The Iranians, as they have done all along, continued to manipulate them, continued to try and mess with them and prevented Yeggie for leaving for some period of time," Ali Rezaian told CNN in an interview from outside a US military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
"The US stuck to its guns, they had said Yeggie had to come along with Jason and they got her out," Ali Rezaian said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that a delay in the departure of the plane taking some of the detainees from Iran was partly due to a "temporary misunderstanding" about whether Rezaian's mother, Mary, and his wife, who is also a journalist, were on the plane, as had been agreed. They were later confirmed as being on the plane.
Rezaian and two other Iranian-Americans arrived on Sunday in Landstuhl where they were undergoing medical evaluations.
The prisoner swap followed the lifting of most international sanctions against Iran under a deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program.
Ali Rezaian said his brother had recounted to him some aspects of the 545 days he was held in Iranian custody after being accused of espionage. He said Iranian authorities grilled him about fellow journalists who cover the country.
"We talked about a couple of things – some folks here, Iranian folks – people that cover Iran. The only thing he said was, 'I was interrogated about them,'" Ali Rezaian told CNN.
Washington Post editors flew to Germany to meet with Rezaian, 39, who appeared in a photograph on the newspaper's website wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt and jeans and said he was feeling fine.
