AN AMERICAN journalist who spent four months in an Iranian prison was greeted with cheers and hugs from friends as she returned to the United States.
Roxana Saberi described how singing the national anthem had helped to keep her going. "And it may sound corny, but I'm so happy to be home in the land of the free," she added.
The 32-year-old writer arrived at Washington Dulles International Airpo
rt with her parents and a family friend after spending a week in Vienna recuperating. Asked how she was feeling, she said: "Very good."
"I wish I could personally thank all those who supported me during my 100 days in prison," she said. Among those she thanked were President Barack Obama, secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, human rights groups and the Japanese government.
Saberi, who grew up in the US and moved to Iran six years ago, has dual citizenship. She is planning to spend a few days in the capital before returning to her home state of North Dakota.
Saberi was arrested in late January and convicted of spying for the US in a secret trial that her Iranian-born father said lasted only 15 minutes.
She was freed on 11 May and reunited with her parents, who had gone to Iran to seek her release, after an appeals court reduced her sentence to two years and suspended it.
The US had said the charges against Saberi were baseless and repeatedly demanded her release. The case against her had become an obstacle to Obama's attempts at dialogue with the top US adversary in the Middle East.
Saberi had worked as a freelance journalist for several organisations, including the US network National Public Radio and the BBC.
After her arrest, Iranian authorities initially accused her of working without press credentials, but later levelled the far more serious charge of spying. Iran alleged she had passed intelligence to the US government, but produced few details.
Iran's reformists are hoping a high turnout in the upcoming presidential election will help them oust hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom they say has pushed the country deeper into international isolation and economic trouble.
The outcome of the 12 June vote may decide the direction Iran will take in respect to Obama's offer of dialogue and its nuclear activities.
The reformists, who seek better relations with the West and easing of social and political restrictions at home, have criticised Ahmadinejad for focusing too much on duelling with the US and Israel, rather then dealing with the faltering economy.
Campaigning officially kicked off on Friday, with only 20 days left to entice the 46.2 million eligible Iranian voters to the polls. Reformists' posters across Tehran warn that a low turnout could bring the hardline president another term in office.
Ahmadinejad's posters invoke his 2005 campaign slogan, "We can" – a reference to the nuclear technology which the West fears masks a weapons programme. At a rally in Tehran, Ahmadinejad on Friday compared Iran's enemies to dogs. "If you retreat, they attack; if you attack, they retreat," he said.
The reformists in the race are Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi. Conservative candidate Mohsen Rezaei is not seen as a serious challenger but someone who could siphon votes away from Ahmadinejad and boost the reformists' chances.
Karroubi, who has said he wouldn't mind meeting Obama if it would serve Iran's interests, urged supporters at a rally last week to vote.
His campaign manager, Gholam Hossein Karbaschi, said a high turnout can unseat Ahmadinejad.
The maths is based on the thinking that hardliners have the backing of between 12 to 15 million Iranians. Any turnout over 30 million could work for the reformists.
