TEHRAN: Iran’s judiciary said yesterday an appeals court would reconsider US-Iranian reporter Roxana Saberi’s eight-year jail sentence on spying charges, the state news agency IRNA said.
“The issued verdict will be reconsidered in the appeals court,” judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi said. However, he added: “We cannot influence the judge’s ruling.”
Saberi’s lawyer, Abdolsamad Koramshahi, said the appeal would be lodged at the end of this week. Saberi was convicted by a revolutionary court last week of spying for the United States.
Human rights lawyer Abdolfatah Soltani, who is to join the defense team with Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and another lawyer, complained yesterday that prison officials have prevented Saberi from signing papers with them.
