UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday at U.N. headquarters he'd wait for details before elaborating on the arrest of his media adviser.
Ali Akbar Javanfekr, Ahmadinejad's media adviser and managing director of the official Islamic Republic News Agency, was arrested Wednesday in Iran. He's charged with publishing remarks viewed as contrary to Islamic principles and is barred from media activities for three years.
IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying Thursday it was too early to offer an informed statement on the arrest.
Javanfekr was also arrested in 2011 but freed after Ahmadinejad intervened. The BBC reports the arrest is a sign of the growing rift between Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The BBC reports Javanfekr allegedly wrote the chador, the traditional black garb worn by Iranian women, wasn't an original Iranian custom, a statement that may have offended Iran's conservative clerics.
