An American reporter jailed in Iran on espionage charges was to be freed Monday and can leave the country immediately, her lawyer said after an appeals court suspended her eight-year prison sentence.
However, an Iranian judiciary source told Reuters that freelance journalist Roxana Saberi has already been freed from Tehran’s Evin jail.
Saberi, a 32-year-old dual American-Iranian national who grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, was convicted last month of spying for the U.S. and sentenced to eight years in prison. An appeals court heard her case on Sunday.
Her case caused tension between the United States and Iran at a time when President Obama had said he wanted to engage Washington’s longtime adversary in a dialogue. The U.S. has called the charges against her “baseless” and demanded she be freed.
Her lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, says Iran’s judiciary told him Monday that Saberi’s jail term was reduced to a suspended two-year sentence.
Saberi moved to Iran six years ago and had worked as a freelance journalist for several organizations including National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corp.
(Source: Fox News)
One Response
Why would they be concerned?
Aren’t both NPR and the BBC
Iran’s allies?