Boelter pleads guilty in lawmaker attacks, agrees to two life sentences

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

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. She left Iran four days later.


      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 Thursday, Saberi said she was not physically
harmed but faced intense psychological pressure that prompted her
to admit to spying.


      "As has been seen in the past, one of the ways that people get
out of these kinds of situations is to make a confession, and even
be videotaped making this confession, even if this confession is
false," she said. 


"And so, under pressure, I did the same thing.
After I realized that nobody knew where I was, I was very afraid,
and my interrogators threatened me and said, 'If you don't confess
to being a U.S. spy, you could be here for many years - 10 years or
20 years, or you could even face execution.'"


      She said she later decided the confession was a mistake.


      "I recanted my confession, knowing full well that I would
jeopardize my freedom," she said. "And indeed, that's what
happened: The prosecutor got upset with me for recanting my
confession and sent my case to trial instead of freeing me, and
that's when I was sentenced to eight years in prison. 

"I knew this
was going to happen when I recanted my confession, but I told
myself, I would rather tell the truth and stay in prison instead of
telling lies to be free."


      Saberi, who grew up in Fargo, N.D., and moved to Iran six years
ago, has dual citizenship.


      Asked whether she hoped to return one day to Iran, her father's
native land, she replied, "Most of the people there were so
hospitable to me -- so kind and so generous. And definitely, I hope
to go back someday."

Gallery

Freed journalist thanks Clinton for support

Journalist Roxana Saberi back in the U.S.

US journalist freed from Iran arrives in Austria

Iran: American journalist guilty despite freedom

US journalist freed by Iran, reunites with parents

Crime, Law and Justice

Politics and Government News

In an interview with National Public Radio News, Roxana Saberi 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.

Saberi says she falsely confessed to spying

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox