‘Love letter’ plea for Roxana Saberi’s freedom

The partner of Roxana Saberi, the American-Iranian journalist from North Dakota jailed in Tehran for eight years on what appears to be a trumped-up spying charge, has appealed for her release, saying she is "too pure" to be used as a pawn between Tehran and Washington.

Bahman Ghobadi, an Iranian 'new wave' film director who has won prizes at the Cannes and Berlin film festivals, has sent the authorities what is in effect an open love letter. In it, he claims Saberi - whom he refers to in the long letter as his fiancee - was only arrested because she happens to hold a US passport.

Pleading for her release, Ghobadi says that 31-year-old Saberi loves Iran and had devoted her time to researching a book in praise of the country. "On the other side of the ocean, the Americans have protested against her imprisonment, because she is an American citizen. But I say no, she is Iranian, and she loves Iran.

"I beg you, let her go! I beg you not to throw her in the midst of your political games! She is too weak and too pure to take part in your games."

Having "shared every moment with her" recently, Ghobadi says it is impossible that she was working as a spy. "It is with tears in my eyes that I say she is innocent and guiltless," he says. "It is me, who has known her for years, and shared every moment with her, who declares it. She was always busy reading and doing her research. Nothing else. During all these years I've known her, she wouldn't go anywhere without letting me know."

He also writes of his guilt at having persuaded Saberi to stay in Iran longer than she wished. "At the beginning of our relationship, she wanted to go back to the United States. She would have liked us to go together. But I insisted for her to stay until my new film was over... And now I am devastated, for it is because of me she has been subject to these events."

Meanwhile, following a demand from President Obama to release Saberi, a judiciary spokesman in Tehran has hinted that her sentence may be reduced or commuted. According to her father, Rexa Saberi, Roxana is still threatening to go on hunger strike in protest at her conviction.