Journalist Jailed In Iran On Hunger Strike

(AP)  The American journalist convicted of spying in Iran has gone on a hunger strike to protest her imprisonment, her father said Saturday.

Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen, was convicted of spying for the United States and sentenced to eight years in prison after a swift, closed door trial earlier this month.

Saberi was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials, but earlier this month, an Iranian judge leveled the far more serious allegation of espionage.

"She went on a hunger strike Tuesday to protest her imprisonment. Today is the fifth day," Reza Saberi told The Associated Press. "She will remain on hunger strike until she is freed."

Her father said Roxana's lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, has appealed the sentence.

"The lawyer filed his appeal today," he said.

Iran's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, ordered a full investigation into the case Monday, a day after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Tehran's chief prosecutor to ensure Saberi be allowed a full defense during her appeal.

It is the first time Iran has found an American journalist guilty of spying, and it is unclear how it would affect recent overtures by the Obama administration for better relations and engagement with Washington's longtime adversary.

The case has been a source of tension with the U.S. at a time when President Barack Obama is trying to open a dialogue with Iran to end a decades-long diplomatic standoff. The U.S. has called the accusations against Saberi baseless and demanded her release.

Iran's judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi said Tuesday that the appeals court would reconsider the verdict, an indication her sentence could be commuted.

Saberi, who was born in the United States and grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, moved to Iran six years ago and worked as a freelance journalist for news organizations including National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corp. She received Iranian citizenship because her father was born in Iran.

Iran has released few details about the charges against Saberi but Iran's Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi said Tuesday that the initial investigation of Saberi was done by an expert on security and counterespionage at the Intelligence Ministry before her case was referred to the court.

An Iranian investigative judge involved in the case alleged that Saberi was passing classified information to U.S. intelligence services.

Her parents have traveled to Iran from their home in Fargo in a bid to help win their daughter's release.

Saberi's father has said his daughter, who was Miss North Dakota in 1997, had been working on a book about the culture and people of Iran, and hoped to finish it and return to the United States this year.

[CLoverNYC1]

She is hoping to be transferred to a hospital where she will have a better chance of escaping.

[sdemaggie]

She's an Iranian citizen. Who cares....

[ayatoldya]

Iran holds it's own people in a constant state of fear. Torture murder and disappearances are common place in Iran's penal system. top this off with Iran's view that a woman is property, less valuable than 2 sheep or a camel.

The lady going on hunger strike is playing into her captors hands. They'd prefer her dead and will do little if anything to prevent it. Her hunger strike is another stupid move on her part as she should be trying to maintain her health and build her strength for the long battle against the Iranian terrorist regime.

[dkhorse11]

A cute reporter for Fox News degrades Iran -- Bingo its jail
Posted by Alabama_John at 12:54 PM : Apr 25, 2009

She's worked as a freelance journalist for news organizations including NPR and the BBC, not FOX it's in the article. But people like you love to fabricate facts to suit your own belief system, ignore facts that don't backup what you want to believe.

That's not being intelligent, and doesn't help you win arguments. That's being retarded.

[whitemale08]

Another dog-and-pony show like Bush the dad fell for when Kuwaiti women were testifying to Congress about rape from Iraqi soldiers in the 1st Gulf War.

It's all British propaganda.

The women didn't have permission to practice journailsm in a sovereign country.

That's their rules, that's their laws.

You have to respect other country's laws and not throw 'temper-tamptrems'.

Are the Iranians using this as a political ploy?

Of course they are but it doesn't exclude the fact that her visa didn't allow for journalism in Iran, just like we don't allow foreigners to host/anchor radio and tv shows without being a citizen of the United States.

[ToolMangler1]

Iran will use this to their advantage, They will drag out her release until she dies of starvation, then at the exact moment of her death, they will pardon her. This is called killing two birds with one stone. Iran has never bargained in good faith with "any" western nation or citizen thereof. Remember, "WE" are infidels and that means to any muslim that we are lower than dog feces. worthy only to be killed.
I wish it weren't so, but it is the truth...

[budmag06]

So, she goes without a couple of meals. Do you really think Iran cares?

[Rsk87]

When you go to certain countries you take a risk, and you gotta accept that. Nobody forced her to go there.

[dsnj1-2009]

@ram1949 regarding your statement-MowMow shows the world again why we had better stop him from advancing in the study of nuclear energy of any kind. Muslims have no resplect for life period.


What planet are you from to generalize like this? I work with several muslims who treat me better than anyone else I ever met, so please think before cr$(p comes out of your mouth.

[ram19491]

MowMow shows the world again why we had better stop him from advancing in the study of nuclear energy of any kind. Muslims have no resplect for life period.