Saberi case goes to an appeal

An Iran court will hear the appeal of the jailed US-Iranian reporter tomorrow morning.

Iran will hear an appeal for the jailed US-Iranian reporter Roxana Saberi, who has been sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of spying for the United States, her lawyer told AFP. "Tomorrow at 9am (7.30am UAE), the branch 14 of the appeal court will have a hearing," Abdolsamad Khoramshahi said today. "We expect that our defence, which has been submitted to the court in 15 pages, will be heard carefully. I do hope and I am optimistic she will be acquitted."

Ms Saberi, 32, was first arrested in January reportedly for buying alcohol, an act prohibited in the republic. But last month a revolutionary court in Tehran sentenced her to an eight year jail term for spying for the United States. Iran's judiciary had said on Tuesday that an appeal would be held for Ms Saberi in the Iranian week starting Saturday. Ms Saberi, a former US beauty queen, launched a hunger strike on April 21 in protest at her jail term, taking in only water or sugared water.

Her father Reza Saberi said last week that his daughter was briefly hospitalised during the hunger strike, which she later ended. The US-born reporter, who is also of Japanese origin, is being held in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said that her appeal would be looked at "with justice and compassion". The verdict against Ms Saberi is the harshest sentence ever meted out to a dual national on security charges in Iran, and comes just weeks after US President Barack Obama proposed better ties with Tehran.

Mr Obama has said that he was "especially concerned" about Ms Saberi as well as two other US women journalists being detained in North Korea. Ms Saberi has reported for US National Public Radio, the BBC and Fox News, and has lived in Iran for the past six years. Iran, which said Ms Saberi had continued working illegally after her press card was revoked in 2006, does not recognise dual nationality. Four US members of the press freedom group, Reporters Without Borders, began a hunger strike on Sunday outside UN headquarters in New York, seeking Ms Saberi's release.

*AFP