U.S.-Iranian reporter on
trial in Iran
By Hossein Jaseb and Fredrik
Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - An
Iranian-American journalist has gone on trial in Iran for spying
for the United States and a verdict is expected soon, the judiciary
said on Tuesday.
Washington says the charges
against Roxana Saberi, who has reported for the BBC, National
Public Radio and other media, are baseless and has demanded her
immediate release.
"The first trial meeting on Roxana
Saberi was held yesterday ... I think the verdict will be announced
soon, perhaps in the next two or three weeks," judiciary spokesman
Alireza Jamshidi told a news conference.
Under Iran's penal code, espionage
can carry the death penalty. Iran last year executed an Iranian
businessman convicted of spying on the military for
Israel.
Saberi, 31, is a citizen of both
the United States and Iran, but Tehran does not recognise dual
nationality. Last week, Iranian media said Saberi had been charged
with espionage on behalf of the United States.
Jamshidi said Saberi, a freelance
reporter who was born in the United States, had submitted the last
defence arguments on her case. She was arrested in late January for
working in Iran after her press credentials had expired.
The new U.S. administration of
President Barack Obama has offered a "new beginning" of engagement
with the Islamic Republic after three decades of mutual
mistrust.
"RIDICULOUS"
The United States said the charges
against Saberi were "baseless and without foundation."
Freedom House, a U.S. human rights
group, said last week the case was the latest in a string of
attacks on press freedom in Iran, which rejects such
accusations.
Jamshidi said: "Giving an opinion
on a case, by an individual or a government, without being informed
about the facts in it, is utterly ridiculous."
Iran's deputy prosecutor for
security issues, Hassan Haddad, was quoted last week as saying
Saberi had confessed to taking part in espionage
activities.
Washington cut ties with Tehran
shortly after the Islamic revolution in 1979 but Obama has offered
to extend a hand of peace if Iran "unclenches its fist."
Iran says it wants to see a real
switch in Washington's policies away from those of former President
George W. Bush, who led a drive to isolate Tehran because of
nuclear work the West suspects has military aims, a charge Iran
denies.
On Monday, Iran said it would
welcome dialogue with six world powers, including the United
States, on Tehran's nuclear programme. The major powers had said
they would invite Iran to a meeting on the long-running
row.
Saberi's parents visited her in
Tehran's Evin jail on April 6, after arriving from the United
States. Evin is a jail where rights groups say political prisoners
are usually taken.
(Editing by Robert
Woodward)