Saturday, April 18, 2009

Iran:American Journalist Gets 8 Years!! Obama is "Deeply Disappointed"


An American journalist in Iran has been sentenced to eight years in jail for spying for the US against Iran. But do not worry about the woman as Obama is on top of this. Fearless Obama has stated that he is "deeply disappointed". Is this conviction part of the "mutual respect" that Obama has called for with the Muslim world?

US 'deeply disappointed' as Iran convicts reporter

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran convicted an American journalist of spying for the United States and sentenced her to eight years in prison, her lawyer said Saturday, complicating the Obama administration's efforts to break a 30-year-old diplomatic deadlock with Tehran.

The White House said President Barack Obama was "deeply disappointed" by the conviction, while the journalist's father told a radio station his daughter was tricked into making incriminating statements by officials who told her they would free her if she did.

It was the first time Iran has found an American journalist guilty of espionage — a crime that can carry the death penalty.

Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen, was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials. But earlier this month, an Iranian judge leveled a far more serious allegation, charging her with spying for the United States.

The Fargo, North Dakota native had been living in Iran for six years and had worked as a freelance reporter for several news organizations including National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corp.

The journalist's Iranian-born father, Reza Saberi, told NPR that his daughter was convicted Wednesday, two days after she appeared before an Iranian court in an unusually swift one-day closed-door trial. The court waited until Saturday to announce its decision to the lawyers, he said.

Saberi's father is in Iran but was not allowed into the courtroom to see his daughter, who he described as "quite depressed." He said she denied the incriminating statements she made when she realized she had been tricked but "apparently in the case they didn't consider her denial."

Saberi's lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, told The Associated Press he would "definitely appeal the verdict."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States was working with Swiss diplomats in Iran to get details about the court's decision and to ensure Saberi's well-being. She said in a statement the United States will "vigorously raise our concerns" with the Iranian government.

The United States has called the charges against Saberi baseless, and the State Department said Thursday that Iran would gain U.S. good will if it "responded in a positive way" to the case.


Link to Article

1 comment:

Tonto said...

Like we needed further proof that the muz were crazy. What exactly do they have in their country that is worth spying on? Their nuke program? The girl couldn't get anywhere near it. The human depavity they practice in the streets daily? More likely. Their excercise of human rights violations? Even more likely. All the same reasons that videos are smuggled out of Iran and North Korea. People are used and abused there and the mullahs don't want the rest of the world to know to what extent it's happening. Islam is a codified method for debasing the rights of human beings and causing human beings to be subjugated to the minions of the devil. Frankly, if I had my way, islam, which is the worst instrument of repression the world has ever seen, would be violently eradicated from the face of the earth where ever it shows it's ugly face.