The trial of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian for espionage and other charges in Iran will be closed to public, including his own family, his newspaper announced Monday.
The newspaper's executive editor Martin Baron said in a statement that the news means the trial will be "closed to the scrutiny it fully deserves."
"There is no justice in this system, not an ounce of it, and yet the fate of a good, innocent man hangs in the balance," Baron wrote.
Rezaian was working as the newspaper's Tehran bureau chief when he was arrested in July 2014 by Iranian authorities.
He is facing charges of espionage, collecting classified information, collaborating with hostile governments, and propaganda against the establishment.
According to his lawyer, Iranian authorities claim Rezaian gathered information about Iranian internal and foreign policies and distributed it to "individuals with hostile intent." One of those individuals, they claim, was President Barack Obama.
Baron said that Rezaian has been held in the country's worst prison and has been denied his basic rights and medical care.
"No evidence has ever been produced by prosecutors or the court to support these absurd charges," he said.
Rezaian is set to go on trial Tuesday. His wife, Yeganeh, was also arrested and will be tried separately.
Baron wrote that neither Rezaian's wife nor his mother, who travelled to Iran to attend the trial, will be allowed inside. He added that the Washington Post had asked to send a senior editor to Iran, but never got a response.
"Iran is making a statement about its values in its disgraceful treatment of our colleague, and it can only horrify the world community," he said.