Release of Journalist Mostafa Darban

The IRNA news agency chief in Baghdad, Mostafa Darban, was released on 27 August and has returned to Teheran, the agency announced. He was freed on the eve of the visit to Iran of Iraqi interim deputy prime minister Barham Salih. Darban was arrested on 9 August along with three other IRNA journalists, Mohammad Khafaji, Mohsen Madani and Abu Ali, and taken to the interior ministry. The Iraqis confirmed their arrest only later and gave no explanation. Darban said he did not know why he had been arrested. IRNA gave no news of Khafaji, Madani and Ali. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 23.08.2004  Iranian delegation allowed to see IRNA's detained Baghdad bureau chief Iran's foreign minister said on 19 August that the detained chief of the news agency IRNA's Baghdad bureau, Mostafa Darban, was in good shape. An Iranian government delegation was able to meet with him on 17 August in the headquarters of the Iraqi interior ministry in Baghdad, where he is being held. Darban was arrested along with three of his journalists - Mohammad Khafaji, Mohsen Madani and Abu Ali - on the night of 9 August. Iraqi government officials for first time confirmed to the Iranian authorities that the four journalists were detained but did not explain why. Amir Hossein Motahar, one of the Iranian interior ministry officials who saw Darban, said he held the Iraqi government "responsible for their safety." -------------------------------------------------------------------- 12.08.2004 Arrest of four Iranian news agency journalists Reporters Without Borders said today it was extremely concerned about the arrest of Mostafa Darban, head of the Baghdad bureau of the Iranian news agency IRNA, and three of his journalists by Iraqi police late on 9 August. All four are being held at the interior ministry. "We deplore this arrest and we are especially concerned because the police have not given any explanation and remained vague about the four journalists' situation" the worldwide press freedom organisation said. "We ask interior minister Falah al-Naqib to say why they are being detained and we call for their immediate release." Darban and agency staffers Mohammad Khafaji, Mohsen Madani and Abu Ali were picked up by uniformed police at IRNA office in Baghdad and their equipment confiscated. The news agency's head office in Teheran had first feared they may have been kidnapped. Other Iranian journalists have been similarly arrested in Iraq. Two journalists from the state-owned TV station IRIB, Said Aboutaleb and Soheil Karimi, were arrested on 1st July last year by US troops and held for four months for allegedly undermining the security of Iraq. US officials did not tell the Iranian consul in Baghdad they had been arrested until two weeks later.