US reporter free after Iran suspends jail term

Monday, May 11, 2009 at 9:44 PM Posted by Beijing News


US-born reporter Roxana Saberi walked free from an Iranian jail on Monday after a court reduced her prison term for spying to a two-year suspended sentence, ending a four-month ordeal.

"I'm okay. I don't want to make any comments but I am okay," the US-Iranian national told AFP minutes after leaving Tehran's notorious Evin prison and being driven away by her father.

US President Barack Obama welcomed Tehran's "humanitarian" gesture in releasing Saberi -- removing one cloud over efforts to improve Iran-US -- but rejected her spying conviction, the White House said.

His Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was "heartened" by the news.

Saberi was initially detained in January and sentenced last month to eight years on charges of spying for the United States in a case that caused deep concern in Washington and among human rights groups.

"The verdict of the previous court has been quashed," her lawyer Saleh Nikbakht said. "Her punishment has been changed to a suspended two-year sentence."

The ruling was greeted with joy and relief by Saberi's father Reza, who has been in the country since March to push for her release and said he is planning to leave Iran with her in the coming days.

Iran's judiciary said the two-year sentence would be suspended for five years, and a judicial source told AFP that the 32-year-old journalist and former US beauty queen would be free to leave.

"She is not forbidden to leave Iran and if she wants she can do so but she is forbidden to work as a reporter," judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi was quoted as saying on the state-run television's website.

"Her remorse and regret and her cooperation, also taking into account the Islamic compassion and the fact that she is a first time offender had a direct effect over the shortening of her sentence," Jamshidi added.

Her release comes just a day after a Tehran court heard a closed-door appeal by Saberi, who was initially detained in January reportedly for buying alcohol, an illegal act in the Islamic republic.

Saberi, who worked for a number of foreign media outlets, had been accused of "cooperating with a hostile state," a charge which carries a prison term of one to 10 years. Washington dismissed the allegations as baseless.

But Nikbakht said the appeal court had quashed the initial April 13 verdict on the grounds that the United States and Iran could not be defined as hostile toward each other.

"She was sentenced to two years suspended for gathering secret documents," he said.

Iran, which does not recognise dual nationality, has said Saberi had continued working "illegally" after her press card was revoked in 2006.

Obama's press secretary Robert Gibbs said: "We want to continue to stress that she was wrongly accused, but we welcome this humanitarian gesture.

"We know this has been a trying time for her family and friends. He the president looks forward to welcoming her home to the United States."

Saberi, who is also of Japanese origin, has reported for US National Public Radio, the BBC and Fox News, and has lived in Iran for the past six years.





Space shuttle Atlantis lifts off at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. AFP/Stan Honda

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