Marzieh Hashemi had been detained in Washington DC as a material witness in an undisclosed federal investigation

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A US-born anchor for Iran’s state-run Press TV has returned to Iran after 10 days of detention in the United States, the channel reported.

The anchor, Marzieh Hashemi, testified as a material witness in an undisclosed federal investigation, a US federal court order said last Thursday when she was freed.

Hashemi’s detention added to the tension that has grown between Iran and the United States since Donald Trump’s decision last May to pull out of an international nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on Tehran.

“It’s very good to be home,” Hashemi said, on a visit to the Press TV office following her arrival in Tehran.

Hashemi said she feared she would be detained again on her flight leaving the United States from Denver to Frankfurt, adding: “I was not comfortable as long as I was over US airspace.

“I was thinking they can reroute the plane and bring it down in Washington. It sounds like a movie but I lived through that movie so I know that anything is possible.”

Hashemi, 59, was arrested by the FBI at St Louis Lambert international airport and transferred to a detention center in Washington DC, where she was held for two days before managing to contact her family, Press TV said.

American anchor for Iranian TV says she was mistreated during US detention Read more

Press TV said she was mistreated in jail because her hijab was removed and she was offered non-halal food, or food not permissible under Islamic law.

The channel aired live footage of her arrival at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport on Wednesday, where a crowd greeted her with flowers.

Most of the crowd were Iranian women dressed in black veils and holding anti-American posters, while loudspeakers played revolutionary songs and anthems in the background, an AFP reporter at the airport said.

“Welcome voice of the oppressed,” read one sign, with another saying “Marzieh is freed, America is shamed.”

US federal law allows the government to arrest and detain a witness if it can prove their testimony is material to a criminal proceeding and it cannot guarantee their presence through a subpoena.

The US government has declined to disclose details of the criminal case in which Hashemi testified. However, a US government source told Reuters it appeared that the grand jury was examining whether English-language Press TV is a propaganda outlet that failed to register with the justice department as an agent of a foreign government.

Hashemi was born Melanie Franklin in the United States and changed her name after converting to Islam. She received Iranian citizenship after marrying an Iranian.

She had travelled to the United States to visit her family, Press TV said.

Several Iranian dual nationals from Austria, Britain, Canada, France and the United States have been detained in Iran in the past few years on charges such as espionage and collaborating with hostile governments.