Agence France Press reports that NPR Reporter Roxana Saberi – an American Citizen (and former Miss North Dakota) has been arrested on flimsy charges (purchasing alcohol) in Iran.
NPR, as of this writing (1040 Monday morning), doesn’t feature her arrest on its front page. Here’s a link to their Saturday coverage, including Scott Simon’s interview with her father.
From the Agence-France Press piece:
The journalist, a former Miss North Dakota, is a US national who also holds an Iranian passport because her father was born in Iran.
Saberi, who has reported for NPR, BBC and Fox News, has been living in Iran for six years, both working as a journalist and pursuing a master’s degree in Iranian studies and international relations.
She was also writing a book about Iran, NPR reported, adding that her father said she was planning to move back to the United States later this year.
Iran, which does not recognise dual nationality, has detained several US-Iranians in recent years.
In May 2007, US-Iranian academicians Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh along with California-based peace activist Ali Shakeri were arrested and held for more than 100 days, on suspicion of causing harm to national security.
US-Iranian journalist Parnaz Azima had her passport confiscated in January 2007 for eight months after she arrived in Iran on a private visit. She avoided jail by paying bail of around 550,000 dollars after which she left the country.
Azima worked for the Persian-language service of Radio-Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is considered a “counter-revolutionary radio” by the Iranian authorities.
She was later sentenced in absentia to one year in prison for “propaganda against the regime.”
American former FBI agent Robert Levinson has been missing for nearly two years since vanishing on the Iranian island of Kish in the Gulf.
The judiciary has denied holding Levinson, whose disappearance is a further strain in relations between arch-foes the United States and Iran.
Further:
Kelly Smith – coverage at InForum (North Dakota)