template for letter to Iran in support of Roxana Saberi

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Head of the Judiciary Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh (Office of the Head of the Judiciary)
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri, Tehran 1316814737, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: shahroudi@dadgostary-tehran.ir (In the subject line write: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi)

Your Excellency:

American journalist Roxana Saberi is being detained in Iran on the grounds that she was ‘illegally gathering news.’ We ask that you investigate these charges, provide Roxana with the rights to which she is entitled under Iranian law, and allow her the opportunity to post bail and be freed from prison pending the hearing of her case.

Several years ago Ms. Saberi participated in an international journalism exchange that was administered by media foundation for which I am an administrator. Ms. Saberi at that time was a very young American journalist interested in learning how she could become an international correspondent.

Within a year of that fellowship Ms. Saberi was able to find employment in Tehran as an international correspondent for an organization that provided news to a number of media organizations around the world.

Since that time Ms. Saberi has reported and traveled within Iran, and as far as I know had not previously been restricted or encumbered in her reporting and newsgathering.

So it was with both surprise and then shock to learn that Ms. Saberi had been detained, not allowed access to counsel, not provided the opportunity for a hearing, and not provided with communication to family.

This situation with Ms. Saberi has become what we in America call a teachable moment. So far, the story has not been a good one, and Iran has not come across well in the reporting. Frankly, Iran comes across as an omnipotent nation willing to quash a woman for no reason other than that it can. That is the lesson that is being learned at this time.

But as we know this story is not complete, and there remains the opportunity for Ms. Saberi to be provided with her legal rights, for her to be released from custody, and for her to be freed from these charges, charges we and many others who closely follow western journalism take to be false.

We urge you to expedite this case, and to help provide Ms. Saberi with the opportunity to live her life, and celebrate Nowruz with her family here in the United States.

Sincerely,Jon Ebinger