DUBAI: on Friday, An American journalist working for Iran`s state television channel Press has been detained in Washington will appear in a US court. Iran has called for the immediate release of TV anchor and documentary filmmaker Marziyeh Hashemian, whose employer, the English-language channel Press TV, said that it was arrested on Sunday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
Due to appear in a Washington, DC, court on Friday, The FBI has not commented on the case "Marzieh Hashemi. The broadcaster on Wednesday quoted Hashemi`s son as stating that the 59-year-old journalist, who had been living in Iran for more than a decade, was detained as a "material witness" to a criminal case and no formal charges had been made against her.
According to source report, Hashemi was born Melanie Franklin in the United States and changed her name after converting to Islam. She had travelled to the United States to visit her family. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif condemned the arrest a "violation of freedom of speech and unacceptable".
US Federal law allows the government to arrest and detain a witness that if it can prove that their testimony is material to a criminal proceeding and that it cannot guarantee their presence through a subpoena. While Zarif told Iran`s Arabic-language state broadcaster Al-Alam news channel that "She is the wife of an Iranian citizen and we see it as our duty to defend the rights of our citizens". In a statement on Friday, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on the Justice Department to disclose the reason for Hashemi`s arrest.
Several Iranian dual nationals from the United States, Britain, Austria, Canada and France have been held over in the past years in Iran and are being kept behind bars on charges including espionage and collaborating with hostile governments.
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