A court in Iran has sentenced Iranian American journalist Reza Valizadeh to 10 years on prison after finding him guilty of collaborating with a hostile government.

Axar.az reports that citing Associated Press, Reza Valizadeh is a former journalist for the US-government-funded Voice of America’s Farsi language service and also has worked for Radio Farda, an outlet under Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that is overseen by the US Agency for Global Media.

Mohammad Hossein Aghasi, the lawyer of Valizadeh, told that the Tehran Revolutionary Court issued a first-instance verdict for his client on a charge of “collaborating with the hostile U.S. government.”

Aghasi said that the verdict can be appealed within 20 days since it was delivered to them a week ago. He added that he hasn’t been able to meet with Valizadeh since the verdict was issued.