Tehran, April 20 (IANS) Iran’s chief justice Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi Monday urged the judiciary to consider immediately an appeal filed by the Iranian-American journalist who has been sentenced to eight years in prison by a court here on charges of espionage.
Shahroudi has told Tehran’s justice department chief Abbas Ali Alizadeh that the accused has the right to appeal and fair trial, the IRNA news agency quoted judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi as saying.

He asked Alizadeh to consider “all aspects of the case, including material and spiritual elements of the crime fairly, quickly and exactly”.

Iran’s revolutionary court Saturday sentenced Roxana Saberi, 31, an Iranian-American journalist working for a number of foreign news organisations, to eight years in jail on charges of spying for the US.

Saberi has been in Tehran’s Evin prison since January following her arrest. She originally faced the less serious accusation of working without a valid press card.

Both US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed deep concern over the journalist’s fate and their disappointment over the verdict.