[R-G] U.S. Journalist to Be Freed Soon in Iran, Her Lawyer Says

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/05/11/world/international-iran-usa-journalist.html>
May 11, 2009
U.S. Journalist to Be Freed Soon in Iran, Her Lawyer Says
By REUTERS

Filed at 7:05 a.m. ET

TEHRAN, May 11 (Reuters) - An Iranian appeals court has reduced the
eight-year jail sentence for Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi
to a suspended two-year term and she will soon be freed, her defence
lawyer told Reuters on Monday.

Lawyer Abdolsamad Khorramshahi was speaking a day after the court
heard the case of Saberi, who was jailed by a lower court on April 18
on charges of spying for the United States.

"The appeals court ... has reduced her jail sentence from eight years
to two years of suspended sentence ... and she will soon be free,"
Khorramshahi told Reuters.

He said Saberi will be banned from doing any reporting work in Iran
for five years.

Saberi's father Reza said he and his wife Akiko were on their way to
Tehran's Evin jail, where their daughter has been held since late
January, "to bring our daughter back home".

Reza Saberi told Reuters his daughter would be allowed to leave Iran.