U.S. journalist leaves Iran after 4-month ordeal

updated 3:56 a.m. ET May 15, 2009

VIENNA - Roxana Saberi, the American journalist freed after some four months in an Iranian prison on spying charges, left the country and flew to the Austrian capital with her parents early Friday.

After landing at Vienna's airport, Saberi said she planned to spend a few days in the city to recover from her ordeal.

"I came to Vienna because I heard it was a calm and relaxing place," Saberi said. "I know you have many questions but I need some more time to think about what happened to me over the past couple of days."

Her father, Reza Saberi, said they were staying with a friend in Austria. The family was accompanied by an unidentified man.

Expresses gratitude
Saberi, poised and smiling, thanked all those who supported her during her ordeal — including Austria's ambassador to Iran and his family, whom she described as "very helpful."

"Both journalists and non-journalists around the world, I've been hearing, supported me very much and it was very moving for me to hear this," Saberi said.

Saberi, referring to several statements made about her case over the past few days, stressed she was the only one who knew what really happened.

"Nobody knows about it as well as I do and I will talk about it more in the future, I hope, but I am not prepared at this time," she said.

Saberi did not specify how long she planned to stay in Austria, saying only: "We're going to stay here for at least a few days and then go on to the United States."

She said it was still unclear if she would also travel to France, where a film she co-scripted premiered at the Cannes Film festival on Thursday. The film's director is Saberi's partner.

The 32-year-old journalist, who grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, and moved to Iran six years ago, was arrested in late January and was convicted of spying for the United States in a closed-door trial that her Iranian-born father said lasted only 15 minutes.

‘So happy to be here’
Saberi's mother, Akiko, also thanked all those who supported her daughter over the past few months.

"We're just so happy to be here," she said.

She was freed on Monday and reunited with her parents, who had come to Iran to seek her release, after an appeals court reduced her sentence to a two-year suspended sentence.

Video   Freed journalist speaks out May 12: American journalist Roxana Saberi says she is happy to be free after being released from an Iranian jail. MSNBC's Monica Novotny reports. MSNBC

The United States had said the charges against Saberi were baseless and repeatedly demanded her release. The case against her had become an obstacle to President Barack Obama's attempts at dialogue with the top U.S. adversary in the Middle East.

At one point, Saberi held a hunger strike to protest her imprisonment, but she ended it after two weeks when her parents, visiting her in prison, asked her to stop because her health was weakening.

Saberi had worked as a freelance journalist for several organizations, including National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corp.

After her arrest, Iranian authorities initially accused her of working without press credentials, but later leveled the far more serious charge of spying. Iran released few details about the allegations that she passed intelligence to the United States.

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