American journalist Roxana Saberi was freed by an Iranian court of appeals today.
Lawyers for the 32-year old said the court had reduced the eight-year jail sentence to a suspended two-year term and she would soon be freed.
The Iranian-American television reporter had lived in Iran for six years before she was charged with “cooperating with a hostile state” after her arrest in January. The harsh sentence provoked an international backlash that prompted Iran’s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to express concern that she had received due process. After his intervention the head of the Iranian judicary asked for the appeal court review.
You have to wonder about what this means for U.S. – Iranian relations. Is Iran sending a signal? Is it opening up to productive talks?
If so, what does it want to talk about exactly? Can it be convinced to stop supporting terrorism? And what about its nuclear project? Is it willing to abandon it? I’d say no, especially not because its leaders have said they would not give it up for such a long time now. Iran’s hardliners would most definitely not support any backtracking in this area.
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