TEHRAN – Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has condemned the United States for the “illegal treatment” of Press TV anchor Marzieh Hashemi, likening the move to the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The American regime’s illegal treatment of Press TV anchor showed that America only preaches others about human rights while binding to the approach of Khashoggi’s killers, Larijani said in an address to the parliament on Sunday.

He was referring to the gruesome assassination of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 at Riyadh’s Istanbul consulate, which is widely believed to have been ordered by the kingdom’s U.S.-backed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The parliament speaker further said if Iran had been involved in incidents of far less intensity than the U.S. mistreatment of Hashemi or the French government’s crackdown on protesters, they would have raised deafening alarms about human rights violations by Tehran’s government.

“This is another example of America’s deceitful policy on the global stage,” he added.

Hashemi, an American-born Muslim convert, who has been based in Iran for many years, was arrested by the FBI without any charges at St. Louis Lambert International Airport in Missouri last Sunday.

Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Chairman Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh claimed on Sunday that Hashemi’s arrest was made based on an “illegal order” by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“We will definitely pursue this issue through international circles,” he asserted.

“For whatever reasons the Press TV anchor was arrested, this measure is contrary to the American domestic laws and international regulations,” Falahatpisheh argued.

He added that the U.S., which has always been claiming to protect democracy and freedom of speech, has arrested the journalist merely due to Trump’s order. 

Falahatpisheh, who himself was a journalist, added Hashemi has not violated the principles of professional journalism in any way.

MH/PA