Showing posts with label US reporter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US reporter. Show all posts

Sunday, April 26, 2009

US Reporter 'Fragile' after Start of Hunger Strike in Tehran Jail

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: Father of journalist sentenced for spying says she must be 'very weak' after five days without food

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Roxana Saberi has been refusing food since Tuesday, say her parents, who visited her in a Tehran prison on Monday. Photo courtesy of The Independent on Sunday

Roxana Saberi, the US-Iranian reporter jailed a week ago in Tehran on charges of spying that are untested in open court, has gone on hunger strike and is in a fragile state, according to her family and associates. Her father, Reza Saberi, said yesterday: "She went on a hunger strike on Tuesday to protest her imprisonment." He said she will continue "until she is freed", but added: "I am pretty certain that she must be very weak now."

The journalist, who grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, a city where yellow ribbons on trees now mark her incarceration, is 32 today, a birthday she will spend in Evin prison. She was arrested in January and initially accused – reports differ – of working without press credentials, or buying alcohol. But an Iranian judge later charged her with passing intelligence to the US. She was convicted after a one-day trial behind closed doors, and sentenced to eight years in prison. >>> By David Randall | Sunday, April 26, 2009