Tehran: US-born reporter Roxana Saberi walked free from a Tehran jail on Monday after an Iranian court reduced her prison term for spying to a two-year suspended sentence.
"I'm okay. I don't want to make any comments but I am OK," Saberi said minutes after leaving the notorious Evin prison and being driven away by her father.
It ends a five-month ordeal for Saberi, who was initially detained in January and sentenced last month to an eight-year jail term on charges of spying for the United States.
"The verdict of the previous court has been quashed," her lawyer Saleh Nikbakht said. "Her punishment has been changed to a suspended two-year sentence."
The ruling was greeted with joy and relief by Saberi's father, who has been in the country since March to push for her release and said he will take his daughter back home to the United States "as soon as possible".
Iran's judiciary said the sentence would be suspended for five years, and a judicial source told AFP that the 32-year-old journalist would be free to leave the country.
"She's free to do what she wants as any other citizen who has a passport and can come and go as they want," the source said.
Her release comes just a day after a Tehran court heard a closed-door appeal by Saberi, who was initially detained in January reportedly for buying alcohol, an illegal act in the Islamic republic.