Arrested and sent back
The journalists were held in custody for about a week and then deported from Saudi Arabia ahead of the Hajj.
New Delhi, Iran has said that Saudi Arabia has expelled six journalists from its state television broadcaster. On Wednesday, Iran reported that the journalists were held in custody for about a week before being sent back to the country and then deported from Saudi Arabia ahead of the Hajj. However, Saudi Arabia has not yet acknowledged the incident. The incident came a year after a Chinese-brokered peace accord between Sunni Muslim-majority Saudi Arabia and Shia-majority Iran.
There have been reports of tension between Shiites and Sunnis at Saudi Arabia's holy sites for decades. The tension is heightened during the Hajj. On the arrest of journalists, Iran's state TV said that three of its journalists were arrested a week ago while they were recording people reading the Koran at the Prophet Mohammad Mosque in Medina. However, Iranian media did not provide any information on the reason for the arrest of the journalists. State TV said the journalists were interrogated for several hours after being detained and then held in a police detention center.
According to news agency AP, two days after the arrest of the three journalists, Saudi police detained a journalist from Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam channel and a journalist from state TV. The journalists were arrested as they were getting out of their car to pray with other Iranian pilgrims. A radio journalist was also detained from a hotel in Medina. Iranian state TV said that all six journalists were later released and sent back to Iran without performing Hajj.
In Islam, it is obligatory for all able-bodied Muslims to perform Hajj once. Hajj is performed in Mecca, Saudi Arabia's holy city of Islam. Iran's state TV said the journalists were released from custody after a week of efforts by Iran's foreign ministry and state TV, after which Saudi sent them back to Iran. State TV says its men committed no crime and their detention was unjustified. Iran, the world's largest Shiite Muslim country, and Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties in 2016. In fact, Saudi Arabia executed prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Iranians strongly opposed the execution of the Saudi Shia cleric. During the protests, protesters attacked two Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran, after which the Saudis cut ties with Iran. Last year, with the mediation of China, the two countries restored their ties. Both countries have severed diplomatic ties.ss1
