[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 62 (Monday, April 27, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4734-S4735]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ROXANA SABERI IMPRISONMENT

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, this is a photograph of Roxana Saberi. 
Yesterday, April 26, was her 32nd birthday. She was born and raised in 
Fargo, ND. Her father Reza Saberi is an Iranian citizen who moved here 
over 35 years ago. Her mother Akiko is Japanese.
  This young woman is a 1994 honor graduate of Fargo North High School, 
active in music, soccer, dance, a member of the North High School Hall 
of Fame, and an outstanding athlete. In 1997, she was voted Miss North 
Dakota. That year, she was made one of the 10 finalists in the Miss 
America pageant, winning the Scholar Award. In 1999, she completed her 
master's degree in broadcast journalism at Northwestern. In 2000, she 
earned a master's degree in international relations from Cambridge 
University in England. I tell you all that about this young woman 
because she sits in a 10-foot by 10-foot prison cell in Evin Prison in 
Tehran, Iran.
  I spoke to her father this weekend. Her father and mother are in 
Tehran.
  Roxana was arrested in Tehran and put in prison, and she has been 
there 86 days. When she went to Iran, she did so because she was proud 
of her Iranian heritage. Even though she was born, raised, and educated 
here in the United States, she was interested in going to the country 
where her father had come from, and so she went to Iran. She is a woman 
who was trained in journalism. I met her when she practiced journalism 
in North Dakota. She has reported for National Public Radio, BBC, for 
FOX News, and others, from Tehran. She stayed in Iran after her 
credentials as a journalist were rescinded in 2006. She stayed to write 
a book about Iran and to complete work on her degree in Iranian studies 
and international relations.
  As I said, as of yesterday she has spent 86 days in prison in Iran, 
in a 10 foot-by-10 foot cell with three cell mates. She was arrested 
January 31 and was convicted of spying just a week ago and given an 8-
year sentence in prison. It is an absolutely preposterous miscarriage 
of justice. This young woman is not engaged in espionage and is not a 
spy. She is a young woman who went to Iran because she was proud of her 
cultural heritage. She was arrested and held in an Iranian prison 
without the capability of access to an attorney. Her parents didn't 
know where she was. She was held there incommunicado. She is a young 
woman caught in the grips of a judicial system and the politics in Iran 
from which she can't seem, at this point, to escape. She is an innocent 
woman sitting in a prison cell in Iran.
  Roxana has been on a hunger strike for the past 7 days in protest of 
her sentence. Her father told me when I visited with him on Saturday 
that he was going to the prison today in Tehran to visit Roxana, and he 
tried to convince her to cease the hunger strike. She does not want to 
do that.

[[Page S4735]]

She has already lost 10 pounds. Her father said she looked very weak 
and said she intends to continue the hunger strike until she dies or is 
released from jail. The only nourishment she is taking is water with 
some sugar.
  The entire world has protested this arrest and conviction and 
sentencing, which is a miscarriage of justice. As I said, she was held 
for 10 days without an ability to communicate with anyone. It took a 
month before the country of Iran admitted they were holding her. It was 
more than 5 weeks before she was allowed to see a lawyer.
  The charges kept changing. First, the Iranian Government said the 
charge was that she purchased a bottle of wine, and the person who sold 
it to her told the Iranian Government, and therefore she was 
arrested. That was what she was told she was put in prison for. She had 
bought a bottle of wine.

  Then she was accused of working as a journalist without a valid press 
license. That was the second accusation.
  Then, weeks later, she was accused of being a spy. The court has not 
released any evidence against her. They held a \1/2\-day trial--behind 
closed doors. There was no release of any evidence against her. 
According to her attorney, she was not allowed to speak in her own 
defense.
  To us that is a completely foreign notion of what justice should be. 
Apparently, at least in some circles in Iran, they consider that some 
kind of perverted justice.
  Let me say there is at least some hopeful signs. President 
Ahmadinejad sent a letter to Iran's prosecutor saying Roxana's rights 
must not be violated and asking him to ensure that she is allowed to 
offer a full defense on the appeal. Her attorney, as I understand it, 
is now set to offer the appeal. The Ayatollah Shahroudi, who is the 
head of Iran's judiciary, has requested a quick and fair appeal of 
Roxana's case. That also gives some of us hope.
  Perhaps some of Iran's leaders understand that what is also on trial 
is the credibility of those who govern Iran.
  This has been very difficult for our country because we do not have 
an embassy or ambassador in Iran. We must communicate through the Swiss 
Embassy, which is the protecting power for American citizens in Iran. 
So it is very hard for us to know what is going on there.
  I want to say, again, this young woman is not a spy. It is 
preposterous for her to be charged with espionage. It is an 
unbelievable miscarriage of justice for her to be sitting in a 10-by-10 
prison cell. Yet on her birthday she sat in that cell in Evin Prison in 
Tehran facing an 8-year sentence in a circumstance in which she was not 
even allowed to defend herself. The basic tenets of justice have 
somehow been denied to this young woman.
  What I believe Iran should do is release her from prison and allow 
her to leave the country and return home with her parents to the U.S. I 
hope the Iranian Government is listening--not just to us, not just to 
me, but to virtually everyone in the world who cares about fairness and 
justice and human rights. All of them have weighed in on Roxana's 
behalf saying: How on Earth can you do this? How do you justify this?
  Iran leaders understand the spotlight of the world is on their 
country and on those who decided to arrest this young woman, a young 
woman so proud of her heritage that she was there wanting to write a 
book about her heritage. I hope they understand the injustice of what 
they have done and what the rest of the world sees of that injustice 
and what it means to Iran in the eyes of the rest of the world.
  If they do, if they understand that, most surely they will decide to 
release her from prison, exonerate her, and allow her to go home. I 
hope they do that soon. They face great risks with the health of this 
young woman who is now on a hunger strike. President Ahmadinejad and 
the people who run the judicial system of Iran should pay close 
attention and do the right thing.
  I have spoken to the Permanent Iranian Representative to the United 
Nations on numerous occasions about this case, and I intend to keep 
pushing. I hope today perhaps the Iranians will understand the 
unfairness of what they have done and finally, at long last, make it 
right.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Hagan). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  (The remarks of Mr. Merkley relating to the introduction of S. 901 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, what is the parliamentary situation?

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