U.S. Imprisons Press TV Anchor

Date: 16 January 2019 - 21:45

News ID: ۶۲۱۴۳

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- A prominent American-born journalist working for an Iranian satellite television channel has been arrested in the United States, the broadcaster said Wednesday.
American officials have not confirmed the arrest of the journalist, Marzieh Hashemi, who has lived in Iran since 2009 and is an anchor at Press TV.
Press TV said that Hashemi, 59, was arrested at the St. Louis airport on Sunday and was then transferred by the FBI to Washington, where she remains in custody. No charges have been filed against her, the channel said.
The report of Hashemi’s detention comes a week after Iran confirmed that it had detained a United States Navy veteran, Michael White.
Relations between Iran and the United States have become increasingly tense since President Trump withdrew from the nuclear accord last May and reimposed sanctions. Iran and the United States exchanged prisoners in 2016.
Hashemi’s family said in a statement that no reason had been given for her arrest. They said that her Islamic head scarf had been forcibly removed, that she was chained hand and foot, and that she was being denied access to halal food and had eaten only crackers.
Bahram Qasemi, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said her arrest highlighted the "racist and discriminatory” policies of the Trump administration.
"The imprisonment of a reporter who is nonwhite and enters the U.S. demonstrates how the government of Mr. Trump’s approach is based on racist and discriminatory policies within an apartheid regime,” Qasemi said. "We hope that this innocent person is unconditionally released soon.”
Nader Talebzadeh, an Iranian writer and filmmaker who has worked with Hashemi, described her arrest as a "concocted plan by the Trump administration” to elicit a reaction from Iran. "This is intimidation and a provocation against Iran,” he said.
Hashemi was born Melanie Franklin in New Orleans and converted to Islam. She has long publicly supported the 1979 Islamic Revolution and is married to an Iranian. Hashemi is one of the main anchors at Press TV, which was established by Iran to spread the country’s message around the globe.
The station has featured interviews with Western analysts often critical of their own governments, and Hashemi has filed reports on discrimination against women, Muslims and African-Americans in the United States.