Iranian state television anchor arrested after flying into the US

[Capricorn]

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https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/new-orleans-born-iranian-broadcaster-held-without-bond/289-ee8a5301-48f9-4ec2-bb1e-793dd95bd07a

NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans-born anchorwoman for Iranian state TV has been detained by the FBI for more than four days without being charged or given a court hearing, leaving her family in Metairie and Colorado confused and upset.

Marzieh Hashemi, 59, is not well-known in the U.S., but she is a popular news anchor in Iran for the state-run English language station there, Press TV, The Associated Press reports. Raised in a Christian family with the name Melanie Franklin, Hashemi was considered a trailblazer as a black woman graduating in journalism from LSU in 1982.

A former classmate of hers, Baton Rouge radio talk show host Jim Engster, said they were in school together during the Iranian revolution of 1979 and there were many Iranian students there.

Hashemi had been in New Orleans visiting her brother, Milton Franklin, in Metairie. Hashemi then went to St. Louis to film a documentary on the Black Lives Matter movement, The AP reported.

Her son, Hossein Hashemi-Niasari, who lives in Colorado, told The AP his mother was arrested Sunday at the St. Louis airport as she prepared to fly to Denver, and the FBI took her to Washington on a material witness warrant.

“There weren’t any charges that were mentioned at that time or after that,” Hashemi-Niasari told The AP. “So, apparently she is clear of charges but she is currently in prison. She has an inmate number. She is behind bars. So, we are curious about why that is and how that works.”

" All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force. " — George Orwell.

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[Desert_Fox]

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If she’s being held as a material witness then charges don’t need to be filed and the length of incarceration is indefinite.  This is quite often used as an intimidation factor when demanding things of someone who doesn’t wish to cooperate for whatever reason.  Used properly it’s a valuable investigative tool but the opportunity for abuse is great and there’s little the individual can do.

". . . those who claim to know the Mind of God, who will tell you what God thinks and how He will judge and condemn others—those people are the greatest of all blasphemers." Aloysius Xingu Leng Pendergast

[Jean]

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Desert_Fox wrote:

If she’s being held as a material witness then charges don’t need to be filed and the length of incarceration is indefinite. This is quite often used as an intimidation factor when demanding things of someone who doesn’t wish to cooperate for whatever reason. Used properly it’s a valuable investigative tool but the opportunity for abuse is great and there’s little the individual can do.

Your statement is far too general and sweeping to go without serious qualification. A material witness may only be detained long enough to get a statement or deposition for use in the criminal prosecution of someone. A good lawyer would have her out within a day. “Release of a material witness may be delayed for a reasonable period of time until the deposition of the witness can be taken pursuant to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.”

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3144

[Author]

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