Iran hints reporter's jail term could be revised

TEHRAN - Iran's judiciary said on Tuesday an appeals court would reconsider US-Iranian reporter Roxana Saberi's eight-year jail sentence on spying charges, the state news agency IRNA reported.

"The issued verdict will be reconsidered in the appeals court," judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi said, quoted by IRNA. However, he added: "We cannot influence the judge's ruling because the judge is independent."

Saberi's lawyer, Abdolsamad Koramshahi, told AFP on Tuesday that the appeal would be lodged at the end of this week.

Saberi, 31, was convicted by an Iranian revolutionary court in a closed-door trial last week of spying for the United States, which along with Israel is Tehran's main foe.

In an unprecedented move on Sunday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for "justice" for the journalist and said she should be given the right to defend herself.

And Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi has ordered a "quick and fair" appeal for Saberi.