Iran releases Washington Times reporter

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen

By Barbara Slavin

Iran on Sunday freed Iason Athanasiadis, a freelance reporter who had traveled to the country to cover Iran's presidential elections for The Washington Times.

Mr. Athanasiadis had been detained in Iran since June 17, when he was arrested at Tehran's airport while preparing to leave the country in the aftermath of the vote.

Greek diplomats took the lead in securing the release of the reporter, who holds dual citizenship in Greece and Britain.

"I would like to express my deep satisfaction for the release of Iason Athanasiadis, following close and continuous contacts with the Foreign Ministry of Iran and under difficult conditions for all. This case has finally come to a happy conclusion," Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis said in a statement. "I hope that his family won't ever have to relive the agony they experienced over the last fortnight."

Times Executive Editor John Solomon thanked both Greece and the Iranian government.

"We'd like to publicly thank the Greek government for its relentless efforts to free Iason from captivity and to express our appreciation to Iran's government for listening to our private humanitarian pleas, setting aside whatever difference it had with Western governments and allowing Iason to reunite with his family, which had suffered so much anguish these last two weeks," Mr. Solomon said in a statement.

No charges were filed against Mr. Athanasiadis.

An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hasan Qashqavi, in announcing the decision to free the reporter, told Iranian state television that in the past the journalist had traveled to Iran using a British passport. Mr. Qashqavi said that when Mr. Athanasiadis returned on his Greek passport he became involved in encouraging demonstrators protesting the results of the June 12 election and was arrested because of this "unprofessional" behavior. The spokesman gave no specifics.

Hundreds of journalists, bloggers and political activists have been arrested in the aftermath of the vote, which the Iranian government contends was won in a landslide by incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mr. Athanasiadis is thought to have been the only non-Iranian detained. A Newsweek correspondent, Maziar Bahari, a dual Iranian-Canadian citizen, is still in being held in custody, along with more than a dozen Iranian journalists.