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Journalist freed in Iran

TEHRAN: An American journalist jailed for four months in Iran was freed on Monday and reunited with her parents after an appeals court suspended her eight-year prison sentence on charges of spying for the U.S. Washington had called the charges against Ms. Saberi baseless and repeatedly demanded her release.

Ms. Saberi’s was arrested in late January. On Monday, an appeals court reduced her jail term to a two-year suspended sentence, Iran’s judiciary spokesman, Ali Reza Jamshidi, told reporters. Mr. Jamshidi said she was free to leave Iran.

He said the appeals court reduced her sentence as a gesture of “Islamic mercy” because she had cooperated with authorities and had expressed regret.

During the two-year suspended sentence she will barred from practicing journalism in Iran and “if she commits a similar crime, the 2-year jail term will be enforced against her,” he said.

—AP

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