Iran jails US 'spy' reporter for eight years

Published on Saturday 18 April 2009 20:02

IRAN convicted an American journalist of spying for the United States and sentenced her to eight years in prison, her lawyer revealed yesterday, complicating the Obama administration's efforts to improve relations with Tehran.

The White House said President Barack Obama was "deeply disappointed" by the conviction, while the journalist's father told a radio station his daughter was tricked into making incriminating statements by officials who told her they would free her if she did.

It was the first time Iran has found a US journalist guilty of spying, and it is unclear how it will affect Obama's push to break a 30-year diplomatic deadlock between the two adversaries.

Roxana Saberi, 31, a dual American-Iranian citizen, was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials. But this month an Iranian judge levelled a far more serious allegation, charging her with spying for the United States.

She had been living in Iran for six years and had worked as a freelance reporter for several news organisations, including the BBC.

Her Iranian-born father, Reza Saberi, said she was convicted on Wednesday, only two days after she appeared before an Iranian court in an unusually swift one-day closed-door trial, but the court had waited until yesterday to announce its decision, he said.

Saberi's father is in Iran but was not allowed into the courtroom to see his daughter, who he described as "quite depressed". He said she denied the incriminating statements she made when she realised she had been tricked, but "apparently in the case they didn't consider her denial".

Saberi's lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, said he would "definitely appeal the verdict".

Last night, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US was working with Swiss diplomats in Iran to obtain details about the court's decision and to ensure Saberi's well-being. She added that the US will "vigorously raise our concerns" with the Iranian government.

The US has called the charges against Saberi baseless, and the conviction and prison sentence could strain efforts to improve ties. Obama has said he wants to engage Iran in talks on its nuclear programme and other issues – a departure from the tough talk of the Bush administration.

Iran has been mostly lukewarm to the overtures, but the country's hard-line president gave the clearest signal yet on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic was also willing to start a new relationship with Washington.

In a speech, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran was preparing new proposals aimed at breaking an impasse with the West over its nuclear programme.

On Thursday, the US State Department said Saberi's jailing was not helpful and that Iran would gain American goodwill if it "responded in a positive way" to the case. But Iran's judiciary is dominated by hard-liners, who some analysts say are trying to derail efforts to improve US-Iran relations.