16 seconds ago 2009-11-27T12:36:46-08:00
TEHRAN (AFP) – AFP reporter Farhad Pouladi will remain in custody at least until the weekend after being arrested on Wednesday while covering an anti-American rally in Tehran, an Iranian official said.
"I am told that he definitely will not be released today or tomorrow. His case is being considered. Maybe he will be released on Saturday or Sunday," an official of the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance told AFP on Thursday.
AFP has asked the Iranian authorities for the immediate release of Pouladi and is protesting his arrest and continued detention.
"We are worried for our journalist. We still don't know exactly where he is being held," AFP chairman Pierre Louette said.
"We strongly protest his detention and we demand that he be released without delay," he added.
The reporter was detained on Wednesday morning by three security personnel, two in uniform and one in plainclothes, witnesses said.
He was riding pillion on a motorcycle when he was stopped.
The rider of the motorcycle said the security force officials confiscated the reporter's mobile phone and then escorted him away.
The rally marked the anniversary of the November 4, 1979 storming of the US embassy in Tehran by Islamist students.
