Washington Times journalist arrested in Iran: friend

Reuters: A Greek journalist covering Iran's disputed presidential election for the Washington Times has been arrested on charges of "illegal activities," a friend told Reuters on Tuesday.

TEHRAN (Reuters) – A Greek journalist covering Iran's disputed presidential election for the Washington Times has been arrested on charges of "illegal activities," a friend told Reuters on Tuesday.

The friend said the journalist, Greek national Iason Athanasiadis, was arrested three days ago in Tehran and that his embassy had been informed.

The semi-official Fars News Agency quoted the head of foreign media affairs at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance as confirming the arrest.

"This Greek national has travelled to this country a number of times for journalistic work for different media but I'm not informed of his crime," the official, Mohsen Moghadeszadeh, was quoted as saying.

(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi and Zahra Hosseinian; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Louise Ireland)