American journalist for Iran’s Press TV ‘jailed’ in US

A prominent American journalist working for the Iranian state television is being held in a prison in the United States without any known charges, her son has said. 

Marzieh Hashemi, 59, an anchorwoman for Iran‘s English-language Press TV, was arrested upon arrival at St Louis Lambert International Airport on Sunday and transferred by the FBI to a detention facility in Washington, DC, the broadcaster reported on Wednesday. 

“We still have no idea what’s going on,” Hossein Hashemi, her elder son, told the Associated Press news agency in a telephonic interview from Washington. “Everyone we ask is very vague and the information is still limited.”

He also said he and his siblings were subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury.

Hossein said her mother was shooting a Black Lives Matter documentary in St Louis, Missouri, and was about to board a flight to Denver when she was apprehended at the airport.

The FBI said in an email that it had no comment on the arrest of the woman, who was born Melanie Franklin in New Orleans and has worked for Iran’s state television network for 25 years.

Hossein Hashemi said his mother, an American citizen, lives in Tehran and comes back to the US about once a year to see family, usually scheduling documentary work somewhere in the country as well.

“It’s important to note that she is an American citizen, she’s a Muslim American citizen, she is an African-American, and she has certain particular kinds of views that make it difficult for us not to think in conspiratorial sorts of ways,” said Hossein Hashemi, a research fellow at the University of Colorado.

Federal law allows judges to order witnesses to be arrested and detained if the government can prove their testimony has extraordinary value for a criminal case and that they would be a flight risk and unlikely to respond to a subpoena. 

‘Apartheid and racist policy’

Marzieh Hashemi had not been contacted by the FBI before she was detained and would “absolutely” have been willing to cooperate with the agency, according to her son. 

The family is trying to hire a lawyer, but it has been difficult because she has not been charged with a crime, her son said.

Iran’s state broadcaster held a news conference and launched a hashtag campaign for Hashemi. 

“We will not spare any legal action” to help her, said Paiman Jebeli, deputy chief of Iran’s state IRIB broadcaster.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told state TV that Hashemi’s arrest indicates the “apartheid and racist policy” of US President Donald Trump’s administration.

“We hope that the innocent person will be released without any condition,” Ghasemi said.

The incident comes as Iran faces increasing criticism of its own arrests of dual citizens and other people with Western ties. 

Last week, Iran confirmed it is holding US Navy veteran Michael R White at a prison, making him the first American known to be detained under Trump’s administration.

At least four other American citizens are being held in Iran, including Iranian-American Siamak Namazi and his 82-year-old father, Baquer, both serving 10-year sentences on espionage charges.

Iranian-American art dealer Karan Vafadari and his Iranian wife, Afarin Neyssari, received 27 and 16 years in jail respectively, while Chinese-American graduate student Xiyue Wang was sentenced to 10 years.