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Last Updated: Nov 2nd, 2009 - 17:32:57 |
TEHRAN (Reuters) - U.S.-born journalist Roxana Saberi will be freed soon after an Iranian appeals court cut her eight-year jail sentence for espionage to a suspended two-year term, her lawyer said on Monday.
An Iranian judiciary source said Saberi, whose jailing on April 18 on charges of spying for the United States became a new source of tension between Tehran and Washington, had already been released from Tehran's Evin jail.
But her father Reza said she had not yet walked free, saying he was waiting in front of the prison.
"She will be freed today, hopefully. The papers are ready ... it is just a matter of time, a couple of hours," he told Reuters by telephone.
Reza Saberi said Roxana would be allowed to leave Iran and that he and his wife would "bring our daughter back home," apparently referring to the United States, where he moved in the early 1970s.
The development came a day after the appeals court held a hearing on the case of Saberi, who has worked for the BBC and U.S. National Public Radio.
"The appeals court ... has reduced her jail sentence from eight years to two years of suspended sentence ... and she will soon be free," her defence lawyer Abdolsamad Khorramshahi said.
He said Saberi, 32, would be banned from doing any reporting work in Iran for five years.
"There are no obstacles for her leaving the country and she can leave Iran freely," said her other lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht.
Saberi looked thin and tired at Sunday's court session. Last week, her father said she had ended a two-week hunger strike and was "very weak." The judiciary denied she had refused food and said she was in good health.
MISS DAKOTA
Saberi, a citizen of both the United States and Iran, was arrested in late January for working in the Islamic Republic after her press credentials had expired. She was later charged with espionage, a charge that can carry the death sentence.
Her case created a new problem for Tehran and Washington at a time when the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is seeking to reach out to the Islamic state after three decades of mutual mistrust.
The United States said the espionage charges against Saberi, a former Miss Dakota who moved to Iran six years ago, were baseless and demanded her immediate release.
Tehran, which does not recognise dual nationality, said Washington should respect the independence of Iran's judiciary.
The two countries are locked in a dispute over nuclear work that the West fears is aimed at making weapons, an allegation that Iran denies.
Obama has offered a new beginning of engagement with Tehran if it "unclenches his fist." Iran says the United States must show real change in police towards it.
Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders last month said Saberi's conviction was a warning to foreign journalists working in Iran ahead of its presidential election in June.
It said seven journalists were imprisoned in Iran, which it said was ranked 166th out of 173 countries in its latest press freedom index.
Iran denies Western allegations it is seeking to stifle dissenting voices. The government says it welcomes constructive criticism and upholds the principle of free speech.
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