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US Seeking Release Of US Journalist Held In Iran

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  • US Seeking Release Of US Journalist Held In Iran

    US SEEKING RELEASE OF US JOURNALIST HELD IN IRAN

    EarthTimes
    April 7 2009

    Washington - A month after Iranian officials said they would soon
    free an Iranian-American radio reporter Roxana Saberi, Washington was
    still trying to obtain her release, a US official said Monday. Saberi
    has been detained since the end of January in Tehran's Evin prison.

    "We continue to work to try to get her released," US State Department
    deputy spokesman Robert Wood said.

    The release of Saberi and an inquiry about the long-missing US
    citizen Robert Levinson, a former agent with the US Federal Bureau
    of Investigation, were the subjects of a letter given to the Iranians
    last week by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

    "The secretary in her letter ... to the Iranians made very clear
    that we were concerned about (the Saberi) case and wanted to see it
    resolved," Wood said.

    Wood also called for the release of another Iranian detainee, Sylva
    Hartounian, an Iranian citizen of Armenian descent and employee of
    the nongovernmental International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX).

    She was helping to administer an exchange programme on maternal and
    infant health in Iran, IREX said online.

    Hartounian was arrested on June 26, 2008, in Iran and "reportedly
    charged with unspecified activities" related to promoting the "so-
    called Velvet Revolution in Iran," Wood said. He said that Hartounian
    has been sentenced to three years in prison, and that she suffers from
    "poor and deteriorating health."

    Wood said the charges against her were "baseless."

    "We call on Iran's leadership to release Ms Hartounian," he said.

    IREX, which receives money from the US government, the European
    Commission, Britain, the United Nations and private donors, says
    it provides leadership for initiative such as improving education,
    strengthening of independent media and fostering "pluralistic civil
    society development."
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