Imprisoned Journalist Saberi On Hunger Strike In Iran
TEHRAN, IRAN (May 5, 2009) – Imprisoned American-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi, 31, who has been on a hunger strike since shortly after the Iranian Revolutionary Court convicted her of spying and sentenced her to eight years in Iran's Evin prison, has been hospitalized and is being fed intravenously, according to her father. A hearing to appeal her conviction is scheduled for next week, an Irianian judical official told reporters in Tehran today.
Reza Saberi told UPI that his daughter was taken to the prison's hospital and given IV fluids before being returned to her cell. He said his daughter was "weak and frail."
The journalist, who has been living in Iraq for six years and reporting for the BBC and NPR during that time, is a native of Fargo, ND. In 2006 the Iranian government cancelled Saberi's press credentials but until she was detained in January of this year they allowed her to continue her radio reports.
On April 18 she was convicted of spying for the United States in a one-day, closed-door trial. A judiciary official said at the time that Saberi had "confessed to espionage charges," allegedly admitting that her work for media organizations was a "cover" for spying, he said.
Saberi's lawyer, Abdolsamad Khoramshahi, is appealing the verdict.
Today an Iranian court official said that her appeal will be heard next week, but he did not specify on what day, and that her appeal will be open to "experts from the country's bar association" but not the public or media. It is also unknown whether Saberi will be present at her appeal or will be only represented by her lawyer. The attorney earlier said that Saberi's original trial took "less than 15 minutes."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said the charges against Saberi were "baseless" and has been calling for the journalist's immediate release. President Barack Obama said he was "deeply disappointed" by Saberi's conviction.
Iran's Evin prison is where the government houses many of the nation's political prisoners and dissidents. The charge of spying can carry with it a death sentence in Iran. In November 2008 an Iranian businessman convicted of spying on Iran for the Israeli military was executed. Ali Ashtari was hanged after his "confession" was broadcast by Iranian state television.
Saberi's parents traveled to Iran from North Dakota in late March to press for their daughter's release, and her father has vowed to stay in Iran until she is free.
In 2004 Saberi was a keynote speaker at NPPA's Women In Photojournalism Conference, and she was also a participant in NPPA's NewsVideo Workshop in Norman, OK, four years ago where workshop director Sharon Levy Freed remembers Saberi as "a real go-getter" and an exceptional video storyteller. At the Women In Photojournalism Conference Saberi spoke about her one-woman coverage of news in Iran. She once worked at a television station in Fargo before going on to Iran where she's been working as a journalist while also taking graduate studies.
The journalist is a former Miss Dakota and she was also named "Miss Scholar" in the Miss America pageant in 1997. She is a graduate of Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism in Evanston, IL, and Cambridge University in Britain.
Saberi first worked in television in Fargo, ND, at KVLY-TV, and she worked as a videojournalist for Belo-Time Warner News 24 in Houston, TX, and Anglia Television in Norwich, England. She was a business intern the Springfield News Leader in Missouri in 1999, a staff writer at the National Journal in Washington, DC, in 1999, and the Washington correspondent for WDAY-TV and WHO-AM radio as well. In 1998 she was a reporter for the Illinois Times and the Illinois Southtown and Daily Herald.
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