-
Iran's judiciary has charged detained Iranian-American freelance journalist Roxana Saberi with espionage - Source: Reuters -
Related
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called on the judiciary to ensure that an Iranian-American journalist jailed for espionage enjoys her legal right to defend herself, the official news agency IRNA said.
Roxana Saberi's lawyer welcomed Ahmadinejad's intervention in a letter to Tehran's prosecutor, published a day after the US-born freelance reporter was sentenced to eight years in jail on charges of spying for the United States.
Lawyer Abdolsamad Khorramshahi has said he will appeal the
verdict, which comes at a time when the new US administration of
President Barack Obama is trying to engage the Islamic state
diplomatically, after three decades of mutual mistrust.
Obama said he was deeply concerned for Saberi's safety and urged
Tehran to free her.
"I have complete confidence that she was not engaging in any sort
of espionage," Obama told a news conference in Port of Spain,
Trinidad and Tobago, where he was attending the Fifth Summit of the
Americas.
He said Washington would be in touch with Tehran about the case through Swiss intermediaries.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said releasing Saberi, 31, would serve as a goodwill gesture.
Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based media rights group,
called Saberi's conviction unjust under the Iranian criminal code
and said her lawyer was not with her when she appeared before the
judges for the single hearing on April 13.
IRNA said the letter from Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, Abdolreza
Sheikholeslami, to prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi dealt with the case
of Saberi and that of detained Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein
Derakhshan.
"Based on the president's insistence, please make sure that all the
legal stages about the mentioned people be based on justice," it
said.
" ... and you personally make sure that the accused people enjoy
all freedoms and legal rights to defend themselves and their rights
are not violated," the letter added.
Derakhshan has been nicknamed the Blogfather for pioneering a
blogging revolution in Iran.
Canadian media have said he is being held on charges of spying
for Israel.
Saberi, who is a citizen of both the United States and Iran, was
arrested in January for working in Iran after her press credentials
had expired.
She was sentenced five days after going on trial on April
13.
Saberi has worked for the BBC, the US network National Public Radio
and other international media.
Ebadi joins defence team
Her father, Reza Saberi, told NPR on Saturday she had been coerced
into statements that she later retracted.
Lawyer Khorramshahi said of Ahmadinejad's statement: "We also
want what the president wants, especially regarding making meeting
my client easier, and also we want them (the judiciary) to be more
accurate at the appeals stage."
He said Shirin Ebadi, Iran's 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, would
join the Saberi defence team.
One Iranian analyst said Ahmadinejad, who is expected to run for a
second four-year term in an election in June, was sending a message
to people both in and outside Iran that he cared about people and
was using his presidential powers to help Saberi.
"This is not only Ahmadinejad ... Politicians do this throughout
the world," he said, predicting that the sentence would be commuted
or reduced by a higher court.
Washington cut ties with Iran shortly after the Islamic revolution
in 1979 but Obama has offered a new beginning of engagement if the
Iranian government unclenches its fist.
Iran says it wants to see a real switch in Washington's policies
away from those of former President George Bush, who led a drive to
isolate the country because of nuclear work the West suspects has
military aims, a charge Iran denies.
World News Video
-
Dangerous rush to Everest summit (1:59)
-
Dozens killed in Syrian massacre (2:09)
-
'King of Romance' competes in Eurovision (1:46)
