An American journalist who went missing in Iran before turning up in prison was found guilty Saturday of spying for the U.S. after a brief trial held behind closed doors in Tehran, her lawyer said.
Roxana Saberi, 31, who holds American and Iranian citizenship and is an alum of Northwestern University near Chicago, faces eight years in jail for the alleged espionage - a sentence that drew harsh criticism from both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who said they were "deeply disappointed" by Iran's action.
Clinton said in a statement the U.S. is working with Swiss diplomats in Iran to get details about the court's decision and to ensure Saberi's well-being. Clinton said the U.S. will "vigorously raise our concerns" with Tehran. Obama's deputy national security adviser, Denis McDonough, said Saberi is an American reporter who was simply practicing journalism.
The North Dakota native, who reported for National Public Radio, the BBC and Fox News, has been living in Iran for six years and was arrested in January and accused of working without press credentials.
But earlier this month, as her parents desperately lobbied for her release, Iranian authorities leveled the far more serious charge of spying for the United States government.
Her lawyer said she was tried on Monday and found guilty in an unsually swift one-day trial. Saberi, a former Miss North Dakota and top 10 finalist in Miss America 1998, has denied the charges and plans to go on a hunger strike, her father, Reza Saberi told the BBC.
"Saberi has been sentenced to eight years in jail. I'll definitely appeal the verdict," lawyer Abdolsamad Khorramshahi told The Associated Press.
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Saberi's father, who was not allowed to attend the trial, suggested Iranian authorities used harsh interrogation tactics and may have coerced statements from his daughter under the false promise of freedom.
"They told her that if she says [something] like this, they will free her, and then they didn't free her," Reza Saberi told NPR Radio. "Later she found out that it was a trick."
The verdict marks the first time Iran has found an American reporter guilty of spying and threatens to strain relations with the Barack Obama administration which has been making overtures for better relations with the Islamic Republic.
Before the trial began, the State Department demanded her release, calling the charges baseless. Clinton made a direct appeal for Saberi to be freed but it was ignored.
"We are extremely concerned at the severe sentence passed on Roxana Saberi," the BBC Press Office said. "Roxana was tried in secret and no evidence of espionage has been made public. Roxana's many friends in the BBC are saddened by the decision and are thinking of Roxana and her family at this difficult time."
North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan called on the Iranian government to "show compassion" and release Saberi. "This is a shocking miscarriage of justice," the Democrat said in a statement issued Saturday.
Journalist watchdog groups criticized the conviction. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement on Saturday that her trial "lacked transparency."
"We call on the Iranian authorities to release her on bail pending her appeal," Mohamed Abdel Dayem, the group's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said in the statement.
"I'll bet my bottom dollar she has not been spying," said Marilyn McGinley, president of the Miss North Dakota pageant, who said she has kept in touch with the journalist through telephone calls and e-mails. "She is not a spy. She loved the people over there and her intention of going over there was to learn about her culture."
