A journalist covering the aftermath of Iran's presidential election for the Washington Times has been arrested on charges of "illegal activities", a friend of the journalist said Tuesday.
The friend told Reuters that the journalist, a Greek citizen named Iason Athanasiadis, was arrested three days ago in Tehran and that the Greek embassy had been informed.
An Iranian news agency quoted Mohsen Moghadeszadeh, who is in charge of foreign media matters at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, as confirming the arrest. "This Greek national has traveled to this country a number of times for journalistic work for different media but I'm not informed of his crime," Moghadeszadeh said.