Khatami
April 20,
TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called last night for fair treatment of US journalist Roxana Saberi, who has been convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison by Iran's Revolutionary Court.
In a rare intervention in judicial proceedings, Mr Ahmadinejad said the Tehran prosecutor should examine the cases against Saberi and Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian-Canadian blogger who has been behind bars since November.
"At the President's insistence, you must do what is needed to secure justice ... in examining these people's charges," said a letter from the President's chief of staff, Abdolreza Sheikholeslami, to prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi. "Take care that the defendants have all the legal freedoms and rights to defend themselves against the charges."
Saberi, 31, a former American beauty queen, has been in detention in Tehran's notorious Evin prison since January 31. She was charged with espionage this month and tried last week behind closed doors.
Derakhshan has been detained since his arrival in Iran in November last year and is being investigated on charges of insulting Shia imams.
US President Barack Obama, who has called for dialogue with Iran since he took office in January, was "deeply disappointed" at Saberi's sentence.
Saberi holds both American and Iranian citizenship, but she travelled to Iran on her Iranian passport and this puts her under Iran's jurisdiction. Her sentence on Saturday marks the first time an Iranian-American journalist has been convicted of espionage in Iran.
Saberi, whose freelance work has appeared on National Public Radio, the BBC, Fox News and CBS, initially told her parents she was arrested for buying a bottle of wine. Purchasing alcohol is illegal in Iran.
Iranian officials said last week Saberi had confessed to charges of passing information to US intelligence agents. But her father, Reza Saberi, told US radio on Saturday his daughter had been "tricked" into a confession and said she told him the investigators promised her a release if she co-operated.
Saberi was born in New Jersey.
Source: The Australian
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