FBI arrests U.s.-born Iranian reporter
NEW ORLEANS •Aprominent American anchorwoman on Iranian state television has been arrested by the FBI during a visit to the U.S., the broadcaster reported Wednesday, and her son said she was being held in a prison, apparently as a material witness.
Marzieh Hashemi, who worked for the network’s English-language service, was detained in St. Louis, where she had filmed a Black Lives Matter documentary after visiting relatives in the New Orleans area. She was then taken to Washington, according to her elder son, Hussein Hashemi.
The FBI said it had no comment on the arrest of the woman who was born Melanie Franklin of New Orleans and has worked for Iran’s state television network for 25 years. She lives about half the time in Colorado, where her children live, and half the time in Iran, according to a brother.
“We still have no idea what’s going on. My siblings and I also have been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury. We don’t know what this is about or how it’s unfolding,” said Hashemi, a research fellow at the University of Colorado.
The arrest comes as Iran faces increasing criticism of its own arrests of dual nationals and other people with Western ties. Those cases have previously been used as bargaining chips in negotiations with world powers.
Hashemi said his mother was detained as she was about to board a flight from St. Louis to Denver.
“She is somebody who is harassed regularly. Every time she travels using air travel, she is pulled to the side. Each time it’s an hourlong, even two-hour-long interview, interrogation,” he said. “This has been going on for almost a decade now.”
He said his mother told him she was driving to New Orleans despite a snowstorm in Colorado “just because of the difficulty in air travel.”
Marzieh Hashemi apparently was detained Sunday, but was able to call her daughter Tuesday, he said.
“That was the first time any of us spoke to her directly. We knew by the next day that she had been brought to Washington, D.C., and that she was being held here,” Hussein Hashemi said.
He said there are no charges against his mother and that she is apparently being held as a material witness.
Iran’s state broadcaster held a news conference and launched a hashtag campaign for Hashemi, using the same techniques families with loved ones held in the Islamic Republic use to highlight their cases.