US TELLS IRAN TO FREE JOURNALIST

Gulf Daily News
April 15 2009
Bahrain

WASHINGTON: The US last night called on Iran to immediately release
jailed Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, saying it was very
concerned over her situation. Iran’s judiciary said that Saberi went
on trial on charges of spying for the US, charges State Department
spokesman Robert Wood said were "baseless" and "without foundation".

Saberi has reported for the BBC, National Public Radio and other media.

Her case coincides with talk of a possible thaw in US-Iranian ties
after US President Barack Obama offered a new beginning if Tehran
"unclenches its fist".

Judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi said Saberi’s trial started on
Monday in a Revolutionary Court, which handles state security matters.

"I think the verdict will be announced soon, perhaps in the next two
or three weeks," he said.

"Her charge was spying for foreigners … She had spied for the US."

Under Iran’s penal code, espionage can carry the death penalty. The
Islamic Republic last year executed an Iranian businessman convicted
of spying on the military for Israel.

Saberi, 31, is a citizen of both the US and Iran but Tehran does
not recognise dual nationality. It announced the espionage charges
against her last week.

Jamshidi said Saberi, a freelance reporter who was born in the US, had
submitted the last defence arguments in her case. She was arrested
in late January for working in Iran after her Press credentials
had expired.

Saberi’s lawyer was not available for comment.

Her parents visited her in Tehran’s Evin jail on April 6, after
arriving from the US.

Evin is a jail where rights groups say political prisoners are
usually taken.

Washington cut ties with Iran shortly after the Islamic revolution
in 1979 but Obama’s administration is trying to reach out to Tehran
following three decades of mutual mistrust.

Iran says it wants to see a real switch in Washington’s policies
away from those of former president George W Bush, who led a drive
to isolate the country because of nuclear work the West suspects has
military aims, a charge Iran denies.

On Monday, Iran said it would welcome dialogue with six world
powers, including the US, which had invited Iran to a meeting on the
long-running nuclear row.

In another case that has caused concern in the West, Jamshidi said
a higher court had upheld a three-year jail sentence against Silva
Harotonian.

A diplomatic source said Harotonian was an Iranian citizen who
worked for a US-based non-governmental organisation in Armenia and
was detained while visiting Iran in 2008.

She was accused of involvement in a US-funded plot to overthrow its
Islamic system of government, along with two Iranian doctors who were
jailed for three and six years.