Iran to hear appeal for jailed US reporter next week

Washington, 5 May (WashingtonTV)—Iran’s Judiciary spokesperson, Alireza Jamshidi, said on Tuesday that an appeals court will hold a hearing next week on the case of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi.

Saberi, who is being held in Tehran’s Evin prison, was handed an eight-year jail sentence last month, on charges of spying for the United States.

“A date has been set for next week for studying Roxana Saberi’s dossier, and the Association of Lawyers and the representatives of the deputy-prosecutor and of the Intelligence Ministry have been notified,” Jamshidi told reporters in Tehran, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.

Jamshidi reiterated the judiciary’s denial that Saberi, 32, was on a hunger strike or that her health had been affected.

Saberi’s family has said that she has been on a hunger strike since 21 April, in protest against her sentence, and was briefly hospitalized on Friday.

“Tehran’s deputy-prosecutor has said that Roxana Saberi is in perfect health and she also did not go on hunger strike and she has no physical problems,” Jamshidi said, according to Mehr news.

Four members of the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders began a hunger strike in the French capital on 28 April, in solidarity with Saberi. Four American members of that press freedom watchdog also began a hunger strike outside the United Nations headquarters in New York on Sunday.

The United States has called the charges against Saberi “baseless” and has urged Iran to release her immediately.

The European Parliament yesterday called on Iran to release Saberi “without conditions”, and said the case displays the “dramatic situation of human rights in Iran,” reports the Associated Press.

Sources: Mehr news agency, Reporters Without Borders website, Associated Press

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