Free Republic

Since his arrest last July -- he was accused of helping to plan the post-election uprisings -- Kian's family and friends have made countless appeals for clemency to the Iranian government, written letters to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pleading his innocence, and signed dozens of petitions. All to no avail. I've come now to realize that the regime probably thinks we're obtuse. Indeed, they know better than anyone that Kian is an innocent man. As the expression goes in Persian, "da'va sar-e een neest," i.e. that's not what this fight is about.

As the families of U.S. hostages currently held in Iran have struggled for years to rally the determination to bring their loved ones home, newly released emails from the former secretary of State reveal the infuriating truth that those with connections get their case raised to the top. In 2009, Iason Athanasiadis was covering the protests of the disputed election win of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over Mir-Hossein Mousavi for the Washington Times. The Greek citizen was detained by Iranian authorities on June 17, 2009, as he tried to fly out of the country. Athanasiadis was thrown in Evin prison and released...

Vali Reza Nasr, a senior Obama administration advisor on Iran, has come to Iran. Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani and former parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel may be behind the visit. "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was informed well after Nasr entered the country," Tabnak reported on Wednesday. Nasr was appointed senior advisor to Richard Holbrooke -- the special US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Tabnak and Fararu claim the unannounced trip by the US official to be linked to the recent release of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi.

The American journalist Roxana Saberi was jailed for espionage in Tehran after obtaining a confidential Iranian document about the American invasion of Iraq, it was claimed today. Saleh Nikbakht, one of Ms Saberi's Iranian lawyers, revealed that a document Ms Saberi had obtained while working as a translator for a powerful clerical lobby had been used as evidence to convict her on charges of espionage. Ms Saberi, 32, was released on Monday after an appeal court dismissed charges of spying and reduced her eight-year prison term to a two-year suspended sentence. Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, the lead defence counsel, said that she...

Roxana Saberi, an American journalist jailed for spying in Iran, could be released within hours after her sentence was overturned, her lawyer said today. An Iranian appeals court has reduced the eight-year jail sentence to a suspended two-year term. She was initially given the lengthy prison term during a secret hearing that sparked a diplomatic incident between Washington and Tehran. Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, her lawyer, said: “The appeals court ... has reduced her jail sentence from eight years to two years of suspended sentence ... and she will soon be free.” Ms Saberi, 31, a dual American-Iranian national who had lived...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - U.S.-born journalist Roxana Saberi is to be freed soon after an Iranian appeals court cut her eight-year jail sentence for spying to a suspended two-year term. A judiciary source said Saberi, whose jailing on April 18 on charges of spying for the United States became a new source of tension between Tehran and Washington, had already been released and would be allowed to leave Iran.

The US-Iranian journalist jailed in Iran, Roxana Saberi, has been freed from prison after having her sentence for spying reduced. Lawyers for Ms Saberi, 31, whose imprisoning sparked a global outcry, said she left Tehran's Evin jail hours after her eight-year term was cut. She will be able to leave the country but has been banned from working as a journalist in Iran for five years. The White House welcomed the release as a "humanitarian gesture". Ms Saberi was convicted of spying for the US in April but denied the charge.

Lawyers for the 32-year old said the court had reduced the eight-year jail sentence to a suspended two-year term and she would soon be freed.

US journalist freed by Iran, reunites with parents By ALI AKBAR DAREINI – 16 minutes agoTEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An American journalist jailed for five months in Iran was freed Monday and reunited with her parents after an appeals court suspended her eight-year prison sentence on charges of spying for the U.S.Roxana Saberi, a 32-year-old dual Iranian-American citizen, met her parents outside Evin prison Monday evening after the court cut her jail term to a two-year suspended sentence, her lawyers said. While they awaited her release, her mother, in a headscarf, smiled while her father looked overcome with emotion."She was...

A court in Iran has heard an appeal by Roxana Saberi, the US-Iranian reporter charged with spying, against her eight-year prison sentence. Saberi's lawyer said on Sunday that he was optimistic the verdict against the 32-year-old would be overturned. Saberi's appeal was heard before a panel of three judges, and representatives of the Iranian Bar Association, but was not open to the public. The appeal was originally scheduled for Tuesday, and it is not known why the hearing was brought forward. Reports say Saberi looked "pale and gaunt" when she arrived for the closed-door hearing. Appeal verdict 'likely'Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, Saberi's...

A lawyer for the Fargo-raised journalist says the change could hurt their hopes for an acquittal or a reduced sentence. TEHRAN, IRAN - An appeals court hearing for Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist from Fargo, N.D., who was sentenced to eight years in prison on spying charges, is scheduled for Sunday, two days earlier than expected, one of her lawyers said Saturday. The lawyer, Abdolsamad Khoramshahi, said he had initially been told that the case would be heard Tuesday but was later informed that a mistake had been made. Although Khoramshahi said he was optimistic that Saberi would win either...

Iranian filmmaker, Bahman Ghobadi, has written an open letter following the arrest and conviction of Roxana Saberi "To Roxana Saberi, Iranian with an American passeport" If I kept quiet until now, it was for her sake. If today I speak, it is for her sake. She is my friend, my fiancée, and my companion. An intelligent and talented young woman, whom I have always admired. It was the 31st of January. The day of my birthday. That morning, she called to say she would pick me up so we would go out together. She never came. I called on her...

The spying conviction of U.S. journalist Roxana Saberi last week by a court in Tehran is just the latest sign that Iran’s ruling clerics are trying to test the resolve of President Obama by taking U.S. citizens hostage, Iran analysts and exiles tell Newsmax. Roxana Saberi, a natural-born U.S. citizen who has worked as a freelance journalist in Iran for National Public Radio and other U.S. news organizations for the past six years, was convicted over the weekend in Tehran after a closed-door trial that lasted just one day. Her lawyer, Abdul-Samad Khorramshahi, told reporters after her trial that he...

The president’s response to the sentencing of Roxana Saberi—eight years in prison—is a testament to the power of Iranian blackmail and Obama’s own pigheaded refusal to understand the nature of our enemies. His “disappointment” in the mullahs’ action (echoed almost to the letter by Secretary of State Clinton) suggests that he hoped, maybe even expected, something better from them. And that, in turn, demonstrates a refusal to see Iran for what it is. If I were Saberi’s Iranian-American father, I would be furious, and I would be inclined to call a press conference to say that, while it may be...

Just Heard B. Hussein O refer to jailed news-reporter Roxana Saberi as "Iranian-American" in a newscast hosted by Fox's Julia Banderas. So our new president think of American as hyphenated citizens.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) - The White House says President Barack Obama is "deeply disappointed" by Iran's sentencing of an American journalist. A lawyer for journalist Roxana Saberi said Saturday the 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen was convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison. Obama's deputy national security adviser, Denis McDonough, says Saberi is an American reporter who was simply practicing journalism. The U.S. is working with Swiss diplomats in Iran to get details about the court's decision and to ensure Saberi's well-being.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized Iran on Saturday for sentencing an American journalist to eight years in prison for spying. "I am deeply disappointed by the reported sentencing of Roxana Saberi by the Iranian judiciary," said Clinton in a statement released by the State Department. "We will continue to vigorously raise our concerns to the Iranian government."

<p>A lawyer for U.S. journalist Roxana Saberi, 31, has vowed to appeal the guilty verdict.</p> <p>TEHRAN, Iran - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday she is "deeply disappointed" by Iran's sentencing of an American journalist in a closed-door trial.</p>

IRAN is facing an "international conspiracy" to over throw the Khomeinist re gime with a "velvet revolution," the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) claimed yesterday. The latest mascot of the plotters is supposed to be Roxana Saberi, a former Miss North Dakota now charged with espionage in Tehran. A US citizen with an Iranian father and a Japanese mother, the 31-year-old Roxana has worked in Iran on and off for years as a freelance reporter. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for Saberi's immediate release and safe return to the US. IRNA claims that the plot was first...

An American journalist jailed in Iran has been convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison, her lawyer said Saturday, dashing any hopes for her quick release. The verdict was the first time Iran has found an American journalist guilty of spying, and it was unclear how the conviction would affect recent overtures by the Obama administration for better relations and engagement with Washington's longtime adversary. Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen, was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials. But earlier this month, an Iranian judge leveled a far more serious...