KABUL -- An Afghan reporter with Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency has been arrested in Afghanistan on spying charges.
An unnamed senior Afghan security official told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that the reporter has been arrested for "disclosing government secrets to Iran" without providing more details.
Fars -- said to be affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Force -- has confirmed that its Kabul bureau chief and reporter Abdolvahed Hakimi was arrested on May 5 by Afghan security agents and taken to an unknown location.
The agency quotes Hakimi's wife as saying that her husband had made a brief telephone call on the night of May 5 to inform his family of his arrest by the Afghan National Security Office.
Fars said the arrest could be down to a "misunderstanding" on the part of Afghan security bodies.