Iran Frees Roxana Saberi

Several Iranian-American citizens, including journalists, have been arrested in Iran in recent years but Saberi was the first one to be tried and given a jail sentence.

Roxana Saberi Courtesy: dequalss.com

(TEHRAN, Iran) - The U.S. journalist who has been behind bars in Iran for five months, 32-year old Roxana Saberi, is free today after an Iranian appeals court suspended her eight-year prison sentence on charges of spying for the United States.

MSNBC reports that Saberi, who is a dual Iranian-American citizen, met her parents outside Evin prison Monday evening following the court decision to release her.

The hearing was closed but, unlike the original trial, which resulted in Saberi getting an eight-year jail sentence, it lasted several hours and Saberi’s lawyers were able to present arguments in her defense.

As expected, her parents, who believed they may not have seen her for eight years, were overcome with emotion, according to reports.

"She was reunited with her father and mother. They left for their house," her lawyer Saleh Nikbakht told The Associated Press. He said Saberi was free to leave Iran immediately.

Reza Saberi, Roxana's Iranian-born father, told reporters that they plans to return home Fargo, North Dakota, with his daughter in the coming days.

Roxana Saberi moved to Iran six years ago and worked for various international news media including the BBC, Fox News and the US public radio network NPR.

Arrested at the end of January, she was initially accused of working illegally as a journalist but was finally tried on a spying charge, one the Iranian authorities often use to silence journalists.

Several Iranian-American citizens, including journalists, have been arrested in Iran in recent years but Saberi is the first one to be tried and given a jail sentence. Her trial was held on April 13th and the sentence was issued five days later.

Iran was ranked 166th out of 173 countries in the latest Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. A wave of arrests on May 1st brought the total number of journalists and bloggers currently held in Iran to 14. Three of them are women.

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Special thanks to MSNBC and Reporters Without Borders.