The Greek journalist Yasson Athanasiadis, who was arrested in Iran, while reporting the local presidential elections, was released yesterday. The freelance journalist, who was reporting the events for Washington Times, was held for 12 days.

Dealing with his release were the Greek foreign ministry as well as the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

“Thanks to the hard work of the Iranian ambassador in Greece, the Greek journalist was released,” said Hassan Kaskavi, representative of the Iranian foreign ministry, for ISNA agency. He also said that Mr. Athanasiadis received his journalist ID back. The Greek foreign ministry in Tehran assured that this is the missing journalist, who has both Greek and British citizenship.

Tonight, with the help of Mr. Garilidis, the Greek ambassador in Tehran, the Washington Times journalist, who was arrested on June 19^th, will leave the country.

The Greek foreign minister, Dora Bakoyanni expressed her satisfaction from the development of the case: “I am expressing my complete satisfaction that Yasson Athanasiadis was released. We were in constant communication with the Iranian foreign ministry during a crisis and finally the case had a happy ending. Yasson Athanasiadis will soon be together with his family. I hope those people will never have to live through such stress again.”