Released reporter Saberi arrives in US

Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi arrived in Washington DC on Friday, after
being released from a Tehran prison following a three-month prison term for spying
in Iran.
Saberi, accompanied by her parents and a family friend, arrived at Dulles airport
from the Austrian capital Vienna, where she spent one week recovering from her
ordeal.
"I know it may sound corny but I am so happy to be back home, in the land of the
free," Saberi told reporters.
She was very well, Saberi added. "I wish I could personally thank all those who
supported me during my 100 days in prison."
Saberi, who worked as a freelance reporter for US National Public Radio had been
arrested in January and convicted of spying for the United States after an April 13
closed-door trial.
Her release on May 11 came after an appeals court revised a lower court's eight-year
jail sentence and converted it into a two-year suspended term.
The 32-year-old Saberi had lived in Iran for six years, working for National Public
Radio as well as other news organisations.
Political considerations were seen as being behind her release at a time when
neither Tehran nor Washington want to increase tensions.
After the initial verdict, both President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Judiciary head
Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi interfered on her behalf.
Saberi, who has an Iranian father and Japanese mother, holds both Iranian and US
citizenship.
She is expected to stay in Washington for one week before returning to her home town
of Fargo, North Dakota.