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 Jason Rezaian, who was arrested in July 2014, had 20 days to
appeal the verdict, the Iranian news service ISNA said, citing an
Iranian judiciary spokesman.
The case is a sensitive issue in Washington's contentious
relationship with Tehran and it played out as the United States and
other major powers forged a deal in July with Iran to curb its
nuclear program in return for relief from sanctions.
Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron said the verdict
against Rezaian was indefensible and that no sentence had been
announced.
"The guilty verdict announced by Iran in the trial of the Washington
Post’s Jason Rezaian represents an outrageous injustice," Baron
said.
 "Iran has behaved unconscionably throughout this case ... The
contemptible end to this 'judicial process' leaves Iran's senior
leaders with an obligation to right this grievous wrong."
Post officials said Rezaian had been used as a bargaining chip. The
newspaper's foreign editor, Douglas Jehl, told Fox News that
Rezaian's wife, mother and lawyer had gone to court in Tehran
seeking an explanation of the court's action but were turned away
after being told no translators were available.
Iran accused Rezaian, 39, of collecting confidential information and
giving it to hostile governments, writing a letter to U.S. President
Barack Obama and acting against national security.
The Post and his family denounced the charges against Rezaian, who
holds both U.S. and Iranian citizenship, as absurd.
A watchdog group, the International Campaign for Human Rights in
Iran, said Rezaian's trial, which concluded in August, was a
"judicial farce" and challenged Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to
correct it.
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"Rouhani's unwillingness to address this miscarriage of justice
calls into question his stated commitment to ensure Iran is a
country ruled by law," said Hadi Ghaemi, the group's executive
director.
A senior Iranian official dismissed in August speculation that Iran
was considering a prisoner exchange with the United States. Iran
holds other U.S. citizens, and said at the time that the United
States holds some 16 Iranians for bypassing sanctions and around 60
prisoners for other crimes.
The other U.S. citizens detained in Iran are Christian pastor Saeed
Abedini and Amir Hekmati, a former sergeant in the U.S. Marine
Corps. Robert Levinson, a private investigator, disappeared in Iran
in 2007.
(Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Howard
Goller)
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