A U.S.-born journalist jailed in Iran on charges of spying for the United States thanked those who helped win her release on Tuesday, after a court reduced and suspended an eight-year sentence handed down last month.

U.S. born journalist Roxana Saberi (R), released from prison on Monday, stands next to her father Reza Saberi as she speaks with the media outside her home in Tehran May 12, 2009. Saberi is in good spirits and may leave Iran next week after she was acquitted on charges of spying for the United States, her lawyer said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl

Speaking to reporters in Tehran, Roxana Saberi said she has no immediate plans for the future, but she expressed her joy at being free after four months in an Iranian prison.
“I am of course very happy to be free and to be with my parents again and I want to thank all the people all over the world… who, whether they knew me or not, helped me and my family during this period,” she said.

“At the moment I have no plan. I want to be with my family and relax.”

Saberi was initially detained in Iran in January reportedly for buying alcohol, but was later charged with espionage.

She was sentenced last month to eight years in prison. But an Iranian court reduced her prison sentence on Monday to a two-year suspended sentence.

“The verdict of the previous court has been quashed,” Saleh Nikbakht, her defence lawyer, said on Monday.

“Her punishment has been changed to a suspended two-year sentence.”

The ruling came after a court in the capital, Tehran, heard Saberi’s appeal behind closed doors.

Saberi’s lawyers said on Tuesday that she was originally convicted in part because she accessed confidential Iranian government documents, which she obtained while working as a freelance journalist.

Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, one of her lawyers, told the Reuters news agency that Saberi had “accepted she had made a mistake and got access to documents she should not have. But there was no transfer of any classified information.”

Saberi’s father, Reza Saberi, said his daughter initially pleaded guilty to the charges under pressure, but later retracted her statements.

He said Saberi had not fully related her experiences in the prison but that she was not tortured.

He is planning to take his daughter out of the country as soon as possible.

“She was very hopeful and we were very hopeful [that she would win the appeal], so we are happy with the news,” he said.

“We asked the authorities to be lenient on her and all the support and people’s kindness helped a lot.”

Saberi launched a hunger strike on April 21 in protest of the sentence, taking in only water or sugared water, but she ended it after about two weeks when she was briefly hospitalised.

“She is telling us little by little about the jail experience. The prison atmosphere is pressurized and not good for anyone.”

Saberi has reported for National Public Radio, the BBC and Fox News, and has lived in Iran for the past six years.

On Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed what he called a “humanitarian gesture” by Iran.

“He was relieved to see that Roxana Saberi has been released,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

“We know this has been a trying time for her family and friends and he looks forward to welcoming her home to the United States.

“We want to continue to stress that she was wrongly accused, but we welcome this humanitarian gesture.”

The original sentence was handed down just weeks after Obama said that his administration would work toward better relations with Tehran after three decades with no official ties.

Washington has repeatedly denied that Saberi was involved in spying for the U.S.

-Aljazeera