NEW ORLEANS — A prominent 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 in an email that 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 who was interviewed by phone from Washington.
The incident 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 hour-long, 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 only Tuesday night, 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. “I don’t know how the legality of that works. But without charges they are able to arrest her and keep her in prison,” he said.
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.
“We will not spare any legal action” to help her, said Paiman Jebeli, deputy chief of Iran’s state IRIB broadcaster.
Iran’s Press TV said Hashemi was arrested after arriving Sunday at St. Louis Lambert International Airport. Jebeli alleged that her son, Reza Hashemi, was arrested as well.
Airport spokesman Jeff Lea declined to comment, referring questions to the FBI.
There were no references to any case against Hashemi in U.S. federal courts, nor in Missouri.
Press TV said Hashemi had traveled to the U.S. “to visit her family members, including her brother, who is suffering from cancer.” The broadcaster aired footage of her anchoring news programs and discussing the war in Syria, set to dramatic music.
Hashemi describes herself online as having studied journalism at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She converted to Islam in 1982 at age 22 after meeting Iranian activist students in Denver.
Hashemi’s brother, Milton Leroy Franklin of the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, told The Associated Press he knows only what his niece has put on Facebook.
“I’m very concerned. There’s no way of getting any word to her and she can’t send any out, apparently,” he said. “We’re all in the dark and just waiting and praying that they release her.”
Franklin said she visited to help plan a family reunion.
She married Hossein Hashemi, whom she had met while in journalism school at LSU. They had two sons and a daughter. Her husband is dead. She remains an American citizen, Franklin said.
Last week, Iran confirmed it is holding U.S. Navy veteran Michael R. White at a prison, making him the first American known to be detained under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told state TV that Hashemi’s arrest indicates the “apartheid and racist policy” of the Trump administration.
“We hope that the innocent person will be released without any condition,” Ghasemi said.
At least four other American citizens 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-year and 16-year prison sentences, respectively. Chinese-American graduate student Xiyue Wang was sentenced to 10 year in prison.
Also in an Iranian prison is Nizar Zakka, a permanent U.S. resident from Lebanon who advocated for internet freedom and has done work for the U.S. government. He was sentenced to 10 years on espionage-related charges.
Former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission, remains missing as well. Iran says that Levinson is not in the country and that it has no further information about him. His family holds Tehran responsible for his disappearance.
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