Iran journalist arrested in US: employer

Tehran: The head of Iran’s English-language Press TV said Wednesday that one of its journalists and her son has been detained in the United States on unspecified charges.

US-born Marzieh Hashemi was arrested on arrival at St Louis Lambert International Airport on Sunday, according to family and friends cited by Press TV.

“As we know the US, especially on combatting terrorism, can arrest anyone with no charges and detain them for weeks. We believe legal action would not be effective for her freedom,” Payman Jabali, head of Press TV, told reporters in Tehran.

“We call on the US to explain her charges,” he said. “This is a scandal for so-called US democracy.”

Jabali said she may have been targeted over documentaries she made about US activities in the Middle East, Islamophobia and other issues.

The broadcaster said Hashemi, a Muslim convert who changed her name from Melanie Franklin, had been visiting “her ill brother and other family members”.

Jabali said all she had been offered to eat was pork, religiously forbidden for Muslims.

He said her son, Reza Hashemi, had also been arrested but was not in detention while he awaited trial, though he did not specify the charges.

[source_without_link]AFP[/source_without_link]