‘You can’t do anything’: Iranian journalist arrested after ‘disappearing’ in Tehran

Iranian journalists have been detained for three days in Iran’s capital after they disappeared.

Anadolu Agency said on Monday that Mohammad Reza Karimi was arrested on Tuesday.

“Anadola news agency said the detention took place in the city of Qom after it received information from a source close to the authorities.

The arrest took place after the journalist’s wife and mother went to the city’s police station to file a complaint.

Police did not immediately comment on the circumstances of the case.”

Karimi’s wife, Ali, who works as a news editor, and his mother are not related,” Anadoluz agency said.

An official at the Qom police station, who declined to be named, told AnadOLuz Agency the two women had been arrested after they left the city for a trip.”

The police officer said they were detained on the basis of the complaint and they were being held in custody until their case is reviewed,” he said.

Karimi and his wife have worked for the Iranian news agency IRNA since 2006.

Iran’s foreign ministry did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has made it clear that his government would not allow journalists to be detained or jailed, and that journalists were free to work and live anywhere in Iran.

But critics have said the government has been slow to investigate the disappearance of journalists, who often face threats and harassment from the security services.

On Friday, the US State Department said it was “extremely concerned” about the disappearance and torture of a prominent US journalist in Tehran, Alan Gross, after he left the country.

The report by the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which describes itself as a “global advocacy organization” but has no national office in Iran, said on Sunday that Gross had been held in secret in Tehran since February 2016.

Gross, a reporter for the BBC, was detained for several days after he was found dead in the country’s capital.US President Donald Trump condemned the death and urged Iran to investigate Gross’s death.US authorities in recent months have been accused of torturing and harassing journalists, and Iran has vowed to retaliate against those attacks.

The CPJ report said it did not know why Gross was detained but said he had been targeted for his work.”

Mr Gross’s detention was a particularly egregious attack on freedom of the press in Iran,” CPJ’s report said.”

It was a case of political repression, aimed at punishing journalists for reporting on human rights abuses, as well as other human rights violations.