Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi is doing fine since being released from an Iranian prison, but won’t be giving any media interviews until she leaves the country, her father said Tuesday.
Reza Saberi, her father, said they plan to leave Iran soon. Saberi, 33, was convicted last month on espionage charges in a one-day trial that was closed to the public. Accused of spying for the United States, she was sentenced to eight years in prison. Saberi went on a two-week hunger strike to protest her detention, but ended it last Monday after her parents pleaded with her to stop, her father told CNN. At one point during the hunger strike, she was hospitalized and fed intravenously, he said. She has since put on some weight, he added. Saberi’s case prompted denunciations from President Barack Obama, as well as other U.S. and international officials. A judge changed Saberi’s sentence during an appeal hearing Monday. The court agreed with her lawyers that, because Iran is not at war with the U.S., Saberi cannot be punished for cooperating with agents of a nation at war with Iran, according to Saberi’s spokesman, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi.
Don’t Miss
Amanpour: What journalist’s release means for Iran, U.S. relations
Obama welcomes Iran’s release of journalist
Iran appeals court to rule on U.S. journalist
Her sentence was changed to a two-year jail term, suspended for five years, Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA reported. Saberi was detained in January after initially being accused of buying a bottle of wine and working as a journalist without proper accreditation, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, an advocacy group. She has lived in Iran since 2003 and reported for international news organizations, including National Public Radio, the BBC and ABC News until her press credentials were revoked in 2006, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. She continued to file short news items, according to NPR.
