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Monday, May 11, 2009

Roxana Saberi Free


BBC News is reporting that Roxana Saberi has been released from prison. Story here.

From the article:

"The US-Iranian journalist jailed in Iran, Roxana Saberi, has been freed from prison after having her sentence for spying reduced.

"Lawyers for the 31-year-old, whose imprisoning sparked a global outcry, said she left Tehran's Evin jail hours after her eight-year term was cut.

"She will be able to leave the country but has been banned from working as a journalist in Iran for five years."

And later:

"The BBC's Jon Leyne, outside Evin prison, says no-one has seen Ms Saberi leave the jail. However, she is thought to be heading with her father to an undisclosed location in Tehran.

"The AFP news agency quoted Ms Saberi as saying: 'I'm OK. I don't want to make any comments but I am OK.'"

This is great news, but before we begin to swoon about how "fair and open" Iran is, let's not forget that Saberi was convicted in a one hour, closed-door trial and that the appeals court's ruling has only reduced her sentence and, perhaps, changed the charge that she was unjustly convicted of. Most importantly let us not forget those others who still languish in Evin prison, convicted of standing against Iran's oppressive and violent government.

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