TEHRAN: Iran said yesterday jailed US-Iranian reporter Roxana Saberi should appeal to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei if she wants to be pardoned, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
“This case is going through the legal process and if there is a request for amnesty it should be made to the supreme leader,” Attorney General Ghorban Ali Dorri Najafabadi said.
Saberi, 32, has appealed against an eight-year sentence handed down to her on charges of spying for the United States. “There have been such cases in the past and it is possible that the appeals court could change the verdict,” Najafabadi said, adding that an appeals court could either reduce or increase sentences.
Under Iran’s judicial system only the supreme leader can pardon convicted offenders, except in murder cases where retribution is considered a private right.
Saberi’s father Reza told AFP on Tuesday that his daughter has been on hunger strike for more than a week and would continue the protest until she was released.
The judiciary denied that Saberi was refusing to eat or that her health had been affected. The United States said it was “very concerned” about her health and urged her release.
Saberi has both US and Iranian citizenship, but Tehran does not recognize dual nationality. Saberi, who is also partly of Japanese descent, has reported for the US National Public Radio, the BBC and Fox News and has lived in Iran for the past six years.
In a rare move, both President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi have called for a fair appeal. The Saberi incident comes as US President Barack Obama tries to repair ties with Iran, an arch-foe since its 1979 Revolution.
Meanwhile, Iran has sentenced a women’s rights activist to one year in jail over her involvement with a signature campaign to change laws for women, media reports said yester.
“Women’s movement activist Parastoo Allahyari was sentenced to one year in jail,” Sarmayeh newspaper said. Allahyari was a member of the “One Million Signature” campaign, an award-winning initiative which seeks to change Iran’s Shariah-based law.
Allahyari was found guilty of “acting against national security by propaganda against the Islamic republic system,” the campaign’s website said, adding the verdict was issued verdict on April 25.
Sarmayeh said another women’s rights activist, Maryam Malek, has also been arrested and detained in recent days. Iran has exerted mounting pressure on women’s rights advocates, and dozens have been arrested over the past two years for calling for changes to Iranian laws or for taking part in public protests.
