Two German reporters have been arrested at the office of Houtan Kian, the lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, while trying to interview the son of the condemned woman.
Tehran alleges that the Germans entered the country on tourist visas, without the correct permit to carry out journalistic work in Iran.
The German Foreign Ministry has not commented on the identities of the journalists, although it is speculated that they may be working freelance for Bild am Sonntag, a mass-circulated tabloid-style Sunday newspaper.
Report of the arrest came from Mina Ahadi, founder of the German-based International Committee Against Stoning, who had set up the meeting and was acting as an interpreter over the phone from Germany. She was on the phone when the arrests happened.
Neither Mr Kian nor Mr Ghaderzadeh, Ashtiani’s son, has been heard from since the arrests.
It is likely that Iran will use the journalists to gain political concessions from Germany, in the same way they manipulated the release of the French student Clotilde Reiss. Relations between the two countries are frosty due to dispute over Iranian nuclear capability and ongoing international condemnation of the sentencing to death by stoning of Ashtiani.
These latest arrests are further proof that Iran is actively trying to censor foreign media reporting from the country.
Recently, Iranian-Canadian journalist Hossein Derakhshan was sentenced to 19 and half years of prison. Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, another journalist and a blogger was also sentenced to 15 years last week.
In July the El Pais correspondent, Angeles Espinosa, was detained after interviewing the son of Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri, who was critical of the current regime. On Monday Tehran cancelled Espinosa’s residency permit and ordered her to leave the country within two weeks.
Such heavy-handed censorship is always a mark of paranoia and guilt on the half of the ruling authority.
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