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WOW2: April 2023 – Women Trailblazers and Activists, 4-24 through 4-30 [1]

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Date: 2023-04-29  

April 26, 1977 – Roxana Saberi born, American journalist, translator, and author born to an Iranian father and a Japanese mother. In 2003, she moved to Iran to report on the situation there. Her stories were distributed by Feature Story News to a wide range of broadcasters in Asia, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and Vatican City. She also made contributions to PBS and NPR. In 2006, Iranian authorities revoked Saberi's press accreditation and closed the FSN bureau in Iran. She maintained a second press accreditation, permitting her to freelance in Iran for the BBC. In late 2006, it was also revoked. Following the revocation of her second press accreditation, Saberi cut ties with the BBC but continued to file occasional reports from the country for broadcasters. In January 2009, she was arrested. On March 3, 2009, an Iranian judiciary spokesman confirmed that Roxana Saberi had been arrested on the orders of the Islamic Revolutionary Court. She wasn’t allowed to see an attorney until March 8. Although she holds both Iranian and American citizenship, Iran does not recognise dual citizenship. On March 10, major international news organisations wrote an open letter to the Iranian government, calling on Iran to allow independent access to Saberi, and expressing deep concern about her well-being and "the deprivation of her rights." U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded her release. On April 6, her parents were allowed a 30-minute visit with her in prison. On April 8, she was charged with espionage, and then sentenced to 8 years in prison. No diplomatic relations existed between Iran and the U.S, so Switzerland was representing U.S. citizens, but no Swiss representative was allowed in the courtroom during her trial. Her case was appealed, and Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and several other organizations closely followed her situation. Amnesty International named her a prisoner of conscience. On May 10, 2009, Saberi's appeal was heard by an Iranian appeals court. The court dismissed the charges against her on the grounds that the U.S. is not a hostile country because it is not at war with Iran. The original charge was that she was working with a "hostile country" – the United States. On May 11, 2009, Saberi was freed from prison after the appeals court suspended her eight-year jail sentence. Another appeals court reduced the charge against her from espionage to possessing classified information, a charge Saberi denied, and reduced her eight-year prison term to a two-year suspended sentence. She said that although she was not physically tortured during her captivity, she was under "severe psychological and mental pressure." Her captors blindfolded her during days of interrogation, held her in solitary confinement, and blocked her from informing anyone of her whereabouts. According to Saberi, her interrogators threatened her with many years in prison and even execution if she did not confess to being a spy. She said that under these pressures, she made a false confession, which she later recanted while still in custody. Saberi wrote a book about her ordeal, Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran, published in 2010. She has also spoken out for other prisoners of conscience and detainees in Iran.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/29/2166282/-WOW2-April-2023-Women-Trailblazers-and-Activists-4-24-through-4-30

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