02 March,2009 09:50 AM IST | | Agencies
A freelance US journalist has been arrested in Iran and has had no contact with her family since early February, US media reported yesterday.
National Public Radio and Fox News reported that Roxana Saberi (31) had been arrested in late January on a charge of buying alcohol, according to her father. "She called from an unknown place and said she's been kept in detention," said Reza Saberi.
He said she had been in detention for 10 days at that point. "She said that she had bought a bottle of wine and the person that sold it had reported it and then they came and arrested her," he said, adding that it was just an excuse to arrest her.
Reza Saberi said when she called on February 10, his daughter asked her parents not to tell anyone about her detention, which is why they had not discussed it until now. At the time she said she expected to be released within two to three days, Saberi said.
Roxana Saberi, a former Miss North Dakota, is a US national who also holds an Iranian passport because her father was born in Iran. She had been living in Iran for six years, working as a journalist and pursuing a master's degree in Iranian studies and international relations.
Iran revoked Saberi's press credentials more than a year ago, but the government tolerated her reporting short news stories out of Iran.
Her father said she was planning to move back to the United States later this year.
