File picture shows US-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi taking footage during a ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran. (AFP)
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran said Monday that a U.S. journalist who was recently detained in the country was engaged in “illegal” activities because she continued working after the government revoked her press credentials in 2006.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hasan Qashqavi did not specify why Roxana Saberi’s credentials were revoked and refused to say whether the 31-year-old freelance journalist, who has reported for National Public Radio and other media, was in prison.
Saberi’s father, Reza, said Sunday his daughter told him by phone Feb. 10 that she was detained after buying a bottle of wine but has not heard from her since.
Buying and selling alcohol is illegal in the Islamic state, but Qashqavi did not mention the bottle of wine at his weekly press conference Monday.
“Her accreditation was over in 2006 after Iranian authorities revoked her press card,” said Qashqavi. “Her activities since 2006 were completely illegal and unauthorized.”
NPR said Sunday that Iran revoked Saberi’s press credentials more than a year ago but apparently let her report short news stories.
Saberi’s father said his daughter had been in detention for 10 days when she called him but did not know where she was being held. She called him back minutes later to say she would be released in two days, but he has not heard from her.
He said his daughter, who has lived in Iran for six years, was finishing a book about the country’s culture and people and planned to return to the U.S. this year.
Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized Iran for arresting journalists and suppressing freedom of speech. The government has arrested several Iranian-Americans in the past few years, citing alleged attempts to overthrow its Islamic regime. The most high-profile case came in 2007, when Iran arrested four Iranian-Americans, including the academic Haleh Esfandiari. The four were imprisoned or had their passports confiscated for several months until they were released and allowed to return to the U.S.
Saberi’s father is from Iran, but she was born in the United States.
US-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi takes footage in Tehran on Septmber 17, 2003. The freelance journalist has been arrested in Iran and has had no contact with her family since early February. (AFP)
Reza Saberi, photographed in his Fargo, N.D., has not heard from his daughter Roxana Saberi, picture in foreground, since her last call on Feb. 10. (AP)