The fiancé of imprisoned Iranian-American freelance journalist Roxana Saberi — who was convicted of espionage after a one-day trial and sentenced to years in jail — has written an open letter calling for her release. The fiancé, a prominent Iranian Kurdish filmmaker, Bahman Ghobadi, wrote, among other things, that “She was always busy reading and doing her research. Nothing else. During all these years I’ve known her, she wouldn’t go anywhere without letting me know, nor would do anything without asking my advice. To her friends, her family, everyone that surrounded her, she had given no signs of unreasonable behavior. How come someone who would spend days without going out of her apartment, except to see me; someone who, like a Japanese lady, would carefully spend her money, and had sometimes trouble making a living; someone who was looking for a sponsor to get in contact with a local publisher so her book would be printed here (in Iran); could now be charged with a spying accusation?!” The open letter was published on the New York Times blog here.
U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has expressed deep disappointment at Saberi’s conviction and sentencing. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for a speedy reviewl of the conviction in which Saberi will be able to mount a full defense.
Roxana is on the fifth day of a hunger strike that she says will last until she is freed. She turns 32 on Sunday. Earlier this month, AP reported in a profile of her that “Roxana Saberi grew up as a classic overachiever, an introverted but determined young woman who excelled at piano and overcame her shyness to become Miss North Dakota [in 1997] and succeed in journalism”. This report can be viewed in full here.
AP also reported that “By the late 1990s, Saberi had landed a job as a reporter for KVLY, Fargo’s NBC affiliate. Charley Johnson, the general manager who hired her after teaching her in a class at Concordia, called her bright, inquisitive and dedicated … Mel Stone, a photojournalist who worked with Saberi at KVLY, recalled how for a time she traveled 250 miles to the Twin Cities every weekend to see a voice coach. She also studied Farsi and later attained master’s degrees in broadcast journalism and international relations. She had been working on another master’s in Iranian studies. Friends said it was Saberi’s curiosity about her heritage that took her to Iran in the first place … Saberi has been a freelance reporter for organizations including National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corp. The government apparently revoked her press credentials more than a year ago, but continued to let her work on some stories. Cathy McMullen, a Concordia journalism instructor, said Saberi’s interests as a reporter ran less to Iran’s political situation and more to the lives of everyday Iranians. ‘She said she liked to do stories on everyday life in Iran, so people could understand the culture’, McMullen said. ‘That’s why this espionage thing makes no sense. She was not doing hot political stories’. Her father, Reza Saberi, told The Associated Press after her arrest that she had been working on a book about the culture and people of Iran, and hoped to finish it and return to the United States this year”.