Free Republic

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...

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.

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...

Roxana Saberi, an American citizen and a native of Fargo, N.D., has been held in a Tehran prison since the end of January. The Iranian government says she was doing reporting work after her credentials expired and they picked her up two months ago after she bought a bottle of wine. While alcohol is illegal, her action was not uncommon and her parents feel as if this was simply an excuse to arrest her.

In fact, before she returned to Fargo, she was in contact with Washington attorney and literary agent Robert Barnett. On May 27, 2009, when Saberi met with Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, Barnett was seated in the office of that meeting. Barnet represented both of the Clintons in their respective book deals. He is also a friend of Hilary Clinton, being one of the first to tell her that the reports of Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky could be true and helping her prepare for her 2000 New York Senate race. On June 22, 2009 it was reported that...

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...

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...

Not content simply to threaten the West with the specter of nuclear rockets, Iran now seeks hostages with which to test the young Obama administration. The pawn in Ahmadinejad’s game is Roxana Saberi, a freelance journalist and American citizen, who has lived in Iran for the last six years. During that time she has filed stories with numerous Western news outlets, while working on a Masters degree (her third) in Iranian studies and international relations. Born and raised in Fargo, North Dakota, she is the daughter of an Iranian-American father and a Japanese-American mother.

We received a desperate plea yesterday from inside Iran on behalf of Roxana Saberi, the 31-year-old Iranian-American journalist convicted in Iran of espionage. Her fiance, award-winning Iranian-Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi, wrote, "It is with tears in my eyes that I say she is innocent and guiltless."

Iran’s arrest of journalist Roxana Saberi recalls Iraq’s treatment of Farzad Bazoft. Michael Rubin On April 13, Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old Iranian-American journalist, appeared before a closed hearing of a revolutionary court to answer charges of spying for the United States — potentially capital charges. Iranian officials brushed off Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s request for Saberi to be released. Iranian justice was quick. On April 18, the court found Saberi guilty and sentenced her to eight years. Her case calls to mind that of Farzad Bazoft, a Western journalist executed by Saddam Hussein in 1990. It is worthwhile to...

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...

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...