Journalist says spying confession forced
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WASHINGTON - Journalist Roxana Saberi, who spent four months in an Iranian prison on espionage charges, said in her first in-depth interview that she initially confessed to being a spy but later recanted.
In remarks to National Public Radio News, Saberi, 32, said her confession was forced and that she believes her decision to recant prompted the Iranian prosecutor to send her case to trial instead of allowing her to go free.
"My confession was false and I thought I had to fabricate it to save myself," she said.
The Iranian government arrested her in Tehran on Jan. 31 and charged her with spying for the United States. In mid-April, Iran's Revolutionary Court sentenced Saberi to eight years in prison, but an appeals court reduced that to a two-year suspended sentence on May 11.
On Wednesday, she met at the State Department with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had said repeatedly during Saberi's confinement that the spying charges against her were baseless.
In her interview recorded Wednesday with NPR, the transcript of which was released yesterday, Saberi said she was not physically harmed but faced intense psychological pressure that prompted her to admit to spying.
