Roxana Saberi | 03/06/2009 10:15 am
Iran Says It Will Release American Journo Roxana Saberi, But Won't Give Date

Roxana Saberi may be coming home.
The Iranian American freelance journalist has been detained in Iran since the end of January, when officials in Tehran claimed her press credentials had expired and, therefore, she had been gathering news "illegally." She was not, however, officially charged with any offense. The 31-year-old has been held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison — the unfortunate home of many of the country’s intellectuals, writers, women’s rights activists and others who work against the right-wing state.
But on Friday, Iranian officials said they had completed their investigation of Saberi and she will soon be released. Iran has been under great pressure since word of Saberi’s detention spread. The Committee to Protect Journalists circulated a petition calling for her release. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar wrote to the UN secretary general to pressure Iran to release the former Miss North Dakota, and the State Department also applied pressure via the Swiss; the U.S. has no official diplomatic relations with Tehran. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday personally called for Saberi’s release.
"I am very concerned about this young woman," Clinton said in Brussels, reports Reuters. "We have pressed very hard. We will continue to do so. We believe there is only one outcome to this matter and that is for her to be released as soon as possible, to return home to her family in North Dakota as soon as possible."
We don’t know exactly when Saberi may be heading home to her dad in Fargo, ND, but it surely won’t be a moment too soon.























3 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
Hopefully she will be released soon. She should have left Iran two years ago when her press card was withdrawn, scary world. Her family must be terrified.