NEW YORK, May 11, 2009: The Committee to Protect Journalists , CPJ, welcomed the release Monday of freelance journalist Roxana Saberi, and called on the Iranian government to safeguard the rights of several other journalists currently in jail.
Saberi, who was initially sentenced to an eight-year prison term for espionage on April 18, was released from Tehran’s Evin Prison Monday after an appeals court reduced her punishment to a two-year suspended sentence.
Saberi’s father and lawyer both confirmed that she had left the prison with her family earlier Monday and was headed to an unknown location in Tehran, according to international news reports. Her father told the press that she would be leaving the country in the coming days.
– We are pleased that Roxana Saberi has been released from prison and hope that other imprisoned journalists in Iran are also given the opportunity defend themselves and receive due process under the law, said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.
Saberi, 32, an Iranian-American freelance reporter, was first detained in January, although she was not charged with a crime. She told her father that she was held for buying a bottle of wine.
A spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said later that Saberi was being detained for reporting without proper accreditation. In early April, Iranian authorities finally charged Saberi with espionage, but did not release any additional information or evidence about the charges Saberi was facing.
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