Region | Iran
Iran hints US reporter's sentence may be eased
Iran may reconsider an eight-year jail term for an American journalist during her appeal, the judiciary spokesman said Tuesday in an indication her sentence will be commuted.
- AP
- Published: 08:20 April 22, 2009
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Tehran: Iran may reconsider an eight-year jail term for an American journalist during her appeal, the judiciary spokesman said Tuesday in an indication her sentence will be commuted.
The statement was the latest hint Iran could be backing off from the imprisonment of 31-year-old Roxana Saberi on charges of spying for the US.
On Monday, the judiciary chief ordered a full investigation into the case, a day after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Tehran's chief prosecutor to ensure Saberi be allowed a full defence during her appeal.
The case has been a source of tension with the US at a time when President Barack Obama is trying to open a dialogue with Iran to end a decades-long diplomatic standoff. The US has called the accusations against Saberi, a dual American-Iranian citizen, baseless and demanded her release.
"We can't influence the judge's verdict (but hope) the verdict will be reconsidered at the appeals court," the official IRNA news agency quoted judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi as saying. The statement was seen as a rare prediction from the judiciary about a pending case.
Iran has released few details about the charges against Saberi. She was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials. But an Iranian judge leveled a far more serious allegation against her earlier this month, charging that she passed classified information to U.S. intelligence services. Saberi's parents and the U.S. have denied that she was a spy.
She was convicted of espionage last week and sentenced after a one-day trial behind closed doors.
Iran's Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi revealed a little more detail about the case Tuesday, saying the initial investigation of Saberi was done by an expert on security and counterespionage at the Intelligence Ministry before her case was referred to the court.
"The expert presented a report to the judiciary. The court investigated the report and found her guilty." IRNA quoted Ejehi as saying.
Ejehi also said that Saberi worked as an Iranian national and never asked to operate as an American journalist.
"Saberi didn't use her non-Iranian nationality. She entered Iran as an Iranian with an Iranian passport," he was quoted by IRNA as saying.
Iran has stressed that although Saberi is a dual national, the courts are treating her strictly as an Iranian citizen. That apparently is an effort to show they are not prosecuting her because she is American.
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