TEHRAN: US-born journalist Roxana Saberi walked free yesterday after an Iranian appeals court cut her eight-year jail sentence for spying to a suspended two-year term. Her release resolved a case that had further strained US-Iranian relations at a time when US President Barack Obama is seeking to reach out to Tehran after three decades of mutual mistrust.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington was heartened by the news, though it still objected to Saberi’s espionage conviction.
“She is currently with her family and will be leaving Tehran to return to the United States in the coming days,” Clinton told reporters in Washington.
Saberi, a citizen of both the United States and Iran who moved to Iran six years ago, was arrested in January for working in the country after her press credentials had expired. She was later accused of espionage, a charge that carries the death sentence, and convicted April 18.
The United States had said the spying charges were baseless and demanded her immediate release. Tehran does not recognize dual nationality and told Washington not to interfere.
The two countries are already locked in an acrimonious dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, which the West fears is aimed at making arms. Iran says it is to generate electricity.
Obama has offered Iran a fresh start in relations, though Iran says Washington must first show real policy change.
Analysts and diplomats have cautioned against seeing Saberi’s arrest as a sign of Iran rejecting Obama’s overture, but say her case may have been influenced by it.
“I’m very satisfied and happy about the ruling. We expected her to be freed but not this soon,” said her father Reza, 68, who moved to the United States in the early 1970s.
“Roxana is well and is staying at a relative’s home tonight ... The exact date of our departure is not clear but we should get ready for our trip to America,” he told reporters.
One of Saberi’s defense lawyers, Saleh Nikbakht, told the ISNA news agency the court had acquitted her of spying but convicted her under a law covering offenses including taking pictures or videos in areas where photography is banned.
