Marzieh Hashemi, an anchor for Iran's state-funded Press TV, was released from FBI custody on Wednesday after spending ten days as witness in unspecified criminal case. She recalled her time in FBI jail in an interview with RT’s Afshin Rattansi, speaking in Washington on Thursday.
Hashemi said she was flown to Washington DC after being arrested while boarding a flight from St. Louis to Denver on January 13.
“[I was] taken to FBI headquarters. I was - my picture was taken, mug shots, they took my DNA,” she said.
"What I realize is how easy it is for them to make someone disappear. If he [Hashemi’s son] was not there, anything could have happened to me and no one would have known where I was. And I’m just wondering how many people that this happens to."
Hashemi said she spent most of her time in solitary confinement, but claimed that she had been “on a suicide watch” in the prison.
"It concerned me, because I’m thinking maybe they have something up their sleeves here."
The journalist will stay in Washington DC for a protest on Friday to call for action “for all freedom-loving people around the world to make sure they go out to the demonstrations on Friday and demand an end to this type of activity by United States.”
Hashemi was snatched up by the FBI under a little used 'material witness' statute at St. Louis Lambert International Airport on January 13. She had been filming a Black Lives Matter documentary after visiting relatives in the New Orleans area.
(Source: Ruptly)