TEHRAN — Iran convicted an American journalist of spying for the United States and sentenced her to eight years in prison, her attorney said Saturday, complicating the Obama administration’s efforts to break a 30-year-old diplomatic deadlock.
The White House said President Barack Obama was “deeply disappointed” by the conviction, while the journalist’s father told a radio station his daughter was tricked into making incriminating statements by officials who told her they would free her if she did.
It was the first time Iran has found an American journalist guilty of espionage. The crime can carry the death penalty.
Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen, was arrested in January and initially accused of working without press credentials. But this month, an Iranian judge leveled a far more serious allegation, charging her with spying for the United States.
The Fargo, N.D., native had been living in Iran for six years and had worked as a freelance reporter for several news organizations including National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corp.
The journalist’s Iranian-born father, Reza Saberi, told NPR that his daughter was convicted Wednesday, two days after she appeared before an Iranian court in an unusually swift one-day closed-door trial. The court waited until Saturday to announce its decision to the lawyers, he said.
Saberi’s father said she denied the incriminating statements she made when she realized she had been tricked but “apparently in the case they didn’t consider her denial.”
Saberi’s attorney, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, told The Associated Press he would “definitely appeal the verdict.”
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States was working with Swiss diplomats in Iran to get details about the court’s decision and to ensure Saberi’s well-being. She said in a statement the United States will “vigorously raise our concerns” with the Iranian government.
The United States has called the charges against Saberi baseless, and the State Department said Thursday that Iran would gain U.S. goodwill if it “responded in a positive way” to the case.
