U.S.-Iranian Journalist Freed By Iran Returns To America
Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist who spent four months in an
Iranian prison on a spying charge, has returned to the United States.
Saberi, 32, arrived at Washington's Dulles International Airport on May 22 and
planned to spend a few days in the U.S. capital before returning to her home
state of North Dakota. Before that, she had spent several days in Austria.
In comments to reporters after her arrival from Vienna, Saberi said she was
feeling "very good."
She named U.S. President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
European and Japanese officials, human rights groups, and fellow journalists as
being among those who had supported her during her time in prison and pushing
for her release.
"I want to thank human rights organizations and my fellow journalists, those who
helped to keep my story alive and pushed for my release," Saberi said. "I'm also
very grateful to my fellow citizens and others around the world, including many
people in Iran, who supported my family and me during this time. One thing that
kept me going when I was in prison was singing the [U.S.] national anthem to
myself, and it may sound corny, but I am so happy to be back home in the land of
the free."
Saberi was arrested by Iranian authorities in late January and eventually
convicted of spying for the United States in a closed-door trial.
She was
freed on May 11 after an appeals court reduced her
punishment to a two-year suspended sentence.
Saberi, who grew up in North Dakota and moved to Iran six years ago, has dual
citizenship.
She had been in Iran for about six years, and during that time had freelanced
for U.S. National Public Radio and other media.
compiled from news agency reports Copyright (c) 2009 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
