24 Facts About Roxana Saberi

Roxana Saberi was born on April 26,1977 and is an American CBS News correspondent and former Miss North Dakota pageant winner.

Roxana Saberi was convicted and sentenced to an eight-year prison term.

Roxana Saberi was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in 2007.

Roxana Saberi graduated in 1997 from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, with degrees in Communication and French.

Roxana Saberi played for the Cobbers soccer team from 1994 to 1996.

Roxana Saberi holds a master's degree in broadcast journalism from Northwestern University and a second master's degree in international relations from the University of Cambridge, where she played for the university soccer team and the King's College, Cambridge, soccer team.

Roxana Saberi was working on another master's degree in Iranian studies at the time of her arrest.

Roxana Saberi made occasional contributions to PBS, NPR, and Fox News.

Roxana Saberi maintained a second press accreditation, permitting her to freelance in Iran for the BBC.

On March 3,2009, an Iranian judiciary spokesman confirmed that Roxana Saberi had been arrested on the orders of the Islamic Revolutionary Court.

The US administration expressed its concern at Roxana Saberi's detention, dismissing allegations against her as "baseless".

Roxana Saberi wrote to the prosecutors: "Please, personally observe the process to ensure that the defendants are allowed all legal rights and freedom in defending themselves and that their rights are not violated even by one iota".

On May 10,2009, Roxana Saberi's appeal was heard by an Iranian appeals court.

On May 11,2009, Roxana Saberi was freed from prison after the appeals court suspended her eight-year jail sentence.

An appeals court reduced the charge against her from espionage to possessing classified information, a charge Roxana Saberi denied, and reduced her eight-year prison term to a two-year suspended sentence.

Roxana Saberi said her captors blindfolded her during days of interrogation, held her in solitary confinement, and would not allow her to inform anyone of her whereabouts.

Roxana Saberi said that under these pressures, she had made a false confession, which she later recanted while still in custody.

Roxana Saberi claimed that this had been used as evidence to convict her on espionage charges.

Roxana Saberi said the document was a classified Iranian report on the US-led war in Iraq.

Since her release, Roxana Saberi wrote a book about her experiences in Iran, Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran, which was released by HarperCollins on March 30,2010.

Roxana Saberi has been speaking out for Iran's "prisoners of conscience" as well as the Iranians who have been detained in the aftermath of the 2009 Iranian presidential election.

Roxana Saberi's awards include the 2008 Medill Medal of Courage, the 2009 Ilaria Alpi Freedom of the Press Award, the 2009 NCAA Award of Valor, and a 2010 Project on Middle East Democracy Award.

In 2013 Roxana Saberi was hired by Al Jazeera America as a correspondent and senior producer.

Roxana Saberi joined CBS News in January 2018 and is based in London.