Saberi happy to be free, expected to leave Iran next week

Tehran: American journalist Roxana Saberi says she is very happy to be free and reunited with her parents and thanked those who helped win her release from an Iranian prison after she served four months on charges of spying for the US.
Speaking to reporters in Tehran for the first time since her release Monday, 32-year-old Saberi said she did not have any specific plans at the moment, but wanted to spend time with her family.

She smiled throughout her brief remarks and looked thin but energetic, dressed in a bright blue headscarf, black pants and a black dress.

"I am very happy that I have been released and reunited with my father and mother. I am very grateful to all the people who knew me or didn't know me and helped for my release. "

Saberi's lawyer Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, said Saberi's eight-year jail sentence was cut to a two-year suspended term, praised the appeal court's handling of the case as "very just".

He told reporters the 32-year-old freelance reporter in the court's hearing on Sunday had "accepted she had made a mistake and got access to documents she should not have. But there was no transfer of any classified information".

Saberi is expected to leave Iran early next week.