Iran Press/Iran news: 'The US government needs to explain how Marzieh Hashemi—a journalist and grandmother—is such a flight risk that she must be incarcerated until she finishes her testimony to a grand jury. 50 years after MLK assassination, US still violates the civil rights of black men and women,' Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted on Monday, Iran Press reported.
Hashemi, a 59-year-old American-born Muslim convert who has been living in Iran for years, was detained at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sunday 13 Jan 2019 while she was in the US to visit her sick brother, who is suffering from cancer, and other family members.
She was transferred to a detention facility by FBI in Washington DC, where she was forced to remove her hijab and only offered food not permissible under her Islamic values.
After days of silence, the US government confirmed on Friday that it was holding Hashemi in jail as a “material witness,” and that she would be released after she testified before a grand jury.
Hashemi's illegal detention has led to reactions from outstanding political figures and bodies all around the world.
At the request of the US Justice Department, Judge Beryl Alaine Howell, the chief district judge for the District of Columbia, issued a federal court order, approving the partial unsealing of the Press TV journalist’s case, on Friday.
According to the document, since her arrest, the journalist has appeared twice before a US district judge in Washington and has been appointed a lawyer.
However, the Friday court order did not include any details regarding the criminal case in which she has been named as a material witness. 105 / 211
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