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TEHERAN: American-Iranian reporter Roxana Saberi, sentenced to eight years in jail on charges of spying for the United States, has ended a two-week hunger strike, her father, Mr Reza Saberi, said yesterday.
"She called us last night and said she is now eating. I think she is well," Mr Saberi said, without specifying when exactly her daughter had ended the hunger strike she started on April 21.
Iran is to hear an appeal next week for Saberi, 32, who was sentenced last month by a revolutionary court in Teheran for spying for the country's archenemy - charges dismissed as baseless by Washington.
Saberi - a former US beauty queen - was initially arrested in January, reportedly for buying alcohol, an illegal act in the Islamic republic.
Her father had said that US-born Saberi, whose mother is Japanese, had been taken to the prison hospital briefly last week after she started drinking only sweetened water to protest against her sentence.
Mr Saberi also said yesterday that a new lawyer would be joining her current defence attorney, and that he hoped the judges would "treat her fairly" in her appeal.
The verdict against Saberi is the harshest sentence meted out to a dual national for security charges in Iran, and came just weeks after US President Barack Obama proposed better ties with Teheran.
--AFP
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