August 08, 2014
The Islamic Republic has freed one of the people it arrested last month along with Jason Rezaian, the Tehran correspondent for The Washington Post.
But Iran did not say why it was freeing the Iranian-American husband of the woman who acts as Rezaian’s photographer.
Neither has the government yet said why on July 29 it arrested Rezaian, his Iranian wife Yeganeh Salehi, who is a reporter for the UAE English language daily The National, Maryam Rahmanian, a news photographer who has taken pictures for both Rezaian’s and Salehi’s articles, and Rahmanian’s husband, Vahid,
Salehi is an Iranian national. The other three are all Iranian-American dual nationals. The Washington Post said Salehi has applied for an American green card
The photographer’s husband was freed Monday after six days in detention. He has not spoken in public.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) said it had learned that the released man was in a very poor psychological state and had isolated himself from others since his release. ICHRI said the photographer had been able to contact her family but was reportedly in great distress and did not provide any information about what organization arrested her, her detention location, or the charges she is facing.
Iran confirmed the arrests three days after they were made. Gholam-Hossain Esmaili, head of the Tehran province Justice Department, said they were detained for questioning. He said details would be issued later. Two weeks have now passed since the arrests and no details have been released.
The Iran Times reported last week that Rezaian and Salehi were able to telephone their families from detention. But the mothers of both subsequently said that was not true.
Rezaian was born in San Francisco to an Iranian father and an American mother. He was reared in Marin County, California, just to the north of San Francisco. His father died a few years ago and his mother moved to Turkey last year.
The State Department expressed “concern” over the arrests and called for all to be released. The comments sounded tepid to many. But the State Department resists making a lot of noise about Americans arrested in Iran out of concern that will convince the Islamic Republic that Americans give them leverage and will simply lead to even more arrests of Americans.