Saberi walks free after court quashes sentence

Tehran: US reporter Roxana Saberi walked out of an Iranian jail on Monday after an appeals court cut her eight-year prison term for spying to a two-year suspended sentence.

A 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, would be allowed to leave Iran.

Reza Saberi said he and his Japanese wife Akiko would "bring our daughter back home", apparently referring to the United States, where he moved in the early 1970s.

"We will go back as soon as possible," he said.

The development came a day after an appeals court held a hearing on the case of Saberi, a 32-year-old freelance journalist who has worked for the BBC and US National Public Radio during her career.

"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 Abdul Samad Khorramshahi said.

He said Saberi 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.