AFP: Iranian-American reporter Roxana Saberi, who was freed last week after four months in an Iranian jail, arrived Friday in the United States.
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Iranian-American reporter Roxana Saberi, who was freed last week after four months in an Iranian jail, arrived Friday in the United States.
"I am so happy to be back in the United States," Saberi told a friend while flanked by two police officers at an airport outside Washington.
Saberi, who left Iran one week ago and travelled with her mother, father, brother and a family friend to Vienna, Austria, arrived Friday at Dulles International Airport.
The 32-year-old US-born journalist walked free from the notorious Evin prison in Tehran on May 11 after a court reduced her prison term for spying to a two-year suspended sentence, ending a four-month ordeal.
"I wish I could personally thank all the people who supported me in my 100 days in prison," she told reporters, thanking US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by name.
She was initially detained in January and sentenced last month to an eight-year jail term on charges of spying in a case that caused deep concern in the United States and among human rights groups.
The sentence was the harshest ever meted out to a dual national on security charges in Iran and came just weeks after Obama proposed dialogue with Tehran after three decades of severed ties.
"I feel like I am still in a dream," Saberi's mother Akiko told AFP at the airport.
