Roxana Saberi to Be Freed from Iranian Prison.

Roxana Saberi, a 32- year old Iranian-American journalist, was sentenced to eight years of jail time on spying on behalf of Washington, D.C. She will be released today. This came about when an appeals court lowered her sentence. The court it seems gave Saberi a 2-year suspended sentence instead.

Ms. Saberi was finishing a book on Iran. Her plan was to come home this year. The book is about the culture and the people of Iran. I can't help but wonder if this book was the reason for the extreme charges. Ms.Saberi was Miss North Dakota in 1997 and was one of the 10 finalists in the Miss America pageant in 1997. Roxana's mom is from Japan and her dad is from Iran. She was born in the United States. .
Ms. Saberi was had been working and living in Iran as a freelance journalist for National Public Radio and the BBC for the last three years. For the last 4 months she has been living in Evin prisom. She can leave Iran as soon as she walks out of the prison. When she bought a bottle of wine, an illegal act in Iran, she was arrested. However, the charges soon became working without a press card and then spying for Washington.

During the appeals process it seems her defense argued that the spy charge be taken off the books because there was no animosity between the United States and Iran - we are not at war with them. This defense was accepted.

The Paris-based press freedom group, Reporters Without Borders, welcomed the appeal court's decision in a statement on its Web site.

On the website this group told the public that they were delighted with the news of today. It seems the fact that thankfully we are not at war with Iran was the key to Ms. Saberi's coming home. Back in October 2009 Reporters Without Borders told us that the appeal hearing lasted a few hours and Roxana's lawyers were able to get in a more than a word. It seems to me that the process was fair once it got to this stage. Of course the process that led up to a charge of espionage was ludicrous.

The press freedom organization stated, "We had urged the authorities to allow Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi of the Human Rights Defenders Centre to attend the hearing but they did not. If this court is to render justice to Saberi, it must quash her conviction and free her without delay." Reporters Without Borders

Roxana Saberi has not been the only journalist or Iranian-American citizen to be arrest in recent times; however, she is the first one to be given time in prison.

Sources

New York Times

Reporters Without Borders

Huffington Post