Lawyers seek reduced sentence for journalist jailed in Iran

Lawyers for jailed journalist Roxana Saberi said they pursued a vigorous and lengthy defense of their client at an appeals court hearing Sunday that they hope could shave time off the Iranian American’s eight-year prison sentence.

And though no Iranian official has indicated that the longtime North Dakota resident would be released from prison any time soon, the lawyers said they were optimistic the terms of her punishment would be amended.

Iran’s Revolutionary Court last month convicted and sentenced Saberi, 32, to jail on an espionage charge. Authorities allege that she has confessed to gathering information from Iranian officials and passing it on to U.S. intelligence operatives.

But her family and legal representatives say any confession was signed only under duress after she had been held for weeks in a solitary confinement wing of Tehran’s Evin Prison without access to an attorney. Her April 14 trial lasted less than an hour and no evidence was publicly presented.

Saberi’s supporters hope an appeals court will reduce or even commute her sentence.

“We had enough time to make a defense, and I am optimistic and hope to see a fundamental change in the verdict within two or three days,” said Abdul-Samad Khorramshahi, her lead defense attorney.

Saleh Nikbakht, another member of Saberi’s defense team, said she appeared in high spirits during the hearing, which followed reports that she had begun and ended a hunger strike in prison. “She was very good and seemed healthy,” he said.

Reporters and Saberi’s parents were barred from the courtroom. Typically a three-judge panel reviews a case and may convene more than one session.

“Cases are studied more carefully at this stage,” Ali Reza Jamshidi, a spokesman for Iran’s judiciary, said in a television interview Saturday.

Lawyers presented their defense over five hours, arguing that Iran’s penal code did not apply to Saberi’s case. They referred to an appellate court ruling on similar charges against pollster Abbas Abdi, a well-known political figure who was arrested and sentenced to prison after publishing a survey of Iranians showing that three-quarters of respondents favored good relations with the U.S.

On appeal, his sentence was slashed from 10 years to 4 1/2 years on the argument that the U.S. was not a hostile state.

“Any activity against the Islamic Republic of Iran by collaborating with hostile countries is a crime, and the punishment is between one and 10 years of jail,” said Nikbakht, who recently joined Saberi’s defense team. “But we argued that, though the U.S. is against Iran, it is not considered hostile or an enemy.”

Saberi was allowed to speak in her own defense. “She did not accept the charges and said, ‘I confessed because I was hopeful that I may receive my freedom quickly,’ ” Nikbakht said.

Raised in North Dakota by her Iranian-born father and Japanese-born mother, Saberi received a graduate degree in journalism from Northwestern University before departing for Iran to work as a journalist.

Saberi reported for various news outlets in Tehran, and her work appeared on NPR, the BBC and Fox television, among others. Her official credentials were revoked in 2006, but she continued to work discreetly.

Her arrest and conviction have prompted an outpouring of support from civil liberties and human rights advocates in the West, inspiring petition drives and Facebook pages. U.S. officials have repeatedly called for Saberi’s release.

But all of that will come to naught, predicted Jamshidi, the judiciary branch spokesman. “The judge has issued a sentence based on his own understanding,” he said in the TV interview. “Some uproar was made about this issue; however, our judges do not pay attention to what the U.S. or other countries may say.”

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daragahi@latimes.com

Mostaghim is a special correspondent.