PEN’s Free Expression Digest brings you a daily curated round-up of the most important free expression-related stories from around the web. Please send your feedback and suggestions to [email protected]

Plane leaves Iran with Post reporter, other Americans in swap
A plane carrying Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and two other Americans released by Iran left Tehran on Sunday and landed in Switzerland after the implementation of a landmark agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. Once the prisoner flight was well on its way, the Obama administration announced new sanctions related to participation in Iran’s ballistic missile program. THE WASHINGTON POST

Moroccan journalist is released after 10 months in prison
A Moroccan investigative journalist was released from prison Sunday after serving a 10-month sentence for adultery in a case that rights groups described as politically driven. Hicham Mansouri had been working on a piece about electronic surveillance by the state when he was arrested. ABC NEWS

Two poets sentenced to prison have fled Iran
Two Iranian poets who faced lashings and prison sentences for their work have escaped from Iran. Poet Fatemeh Ekhtesari told AP Monday that both she and fellow poet Mehdi Mousavi escaped from Iran in recent days and were safely in another country. She declined to elaborate out of concerns about their safety. BUZZFEED NEWS

Thailand wants to throw British rights activist in jail
On Monday, British human rights activist Andy Hall was indicted by a Bangkok court on charges of criminal defamation and computer crimes relating to a report released three years ago exposing severe working conditions in Thai factories. Observers say this case highlights the growing repression of civil society representatives under Thailand’s military government. VICE NEWS

Police in Colombia accused of spying on journalist
Colombia’s national police force is facing allegations that it wiretapped a high-profile journalist investigating the involvement of cadets in a prostitution ring. While the attorney general’s office and Colombia’s president have separately ordered investigations into the allegations, critics say the probes are being hindered by death threats and conflicts of interests. THE INTERCEPT

Jason Rezaian wanted ‘to tell the truth’ about his father’s homeland
The journalist grew up in the Bay Area, but his father’s home country, Iran, always had a big piece of his heart. In 2012, Rezaian became a Tehran correspondent for The Washington Post, writing stories that he hoped would give readers a more nuanced view of a country that fascinated him. He and the Post have long denied allegations of spying, saying he merely acted as a journalist. THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

What surveillance of Martin Luther King, Jr. says about modern spying
There is a myth in the U.S. that in a world where everyone is watched, everyone is watched equally. Across our history and to this day, people of color have been the disproportionate victims of unjust surveillance; J. Edgar Hoover was no aberration. And while racism has played its ugly part, the justification for this monitoring was the same we hear today: national security. SLATE