Tehran should free Iranian-US journalist: Obama

American President Barack Obama on Sunday urged Tehran to free imprisoned Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the judiciary to ensure that Saberi enjoys her legal right to defend herself.

Obama said he was "deeply concerned" for the safety of Saberi, saying he was confident she was not involved in spying.

"Obviously I'm gravely concerned with her safety and well being," Obama told a news conference in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, where he was attending the Fifth Summit of the Americas.

"We are working to make sure that she is properly treated and to get information about the disposition of her case. She is an American citizen and I have complete confidence that she was not engaging in any sort espionage," said Obama.

"She is an Iranian-American who was interested in the country which her family came from and it is appropriate for her to be treated as such and be released," he added.

Obama said Washington would be in touch with Tehran about the case through Swiss intermediaries.

Ahmadinejad earlier urged Tehran's prosecutor to ensure that Saberi enjoys her legal right to defend herself, a day after she was sentenced to eight years in jail for spying for the United States, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Saberi's lawyer said he would appeal the sentence, which comes at a time when Obama is trying to reach out to the Islamic Republic following three decades of mutual mistrust.

IRNA said the letter from Ahmadinejad's chief-of-staff Abdolreza Sheikholeslami to prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi dealt with Saberi's case as well as that of a detained Iranian blogger.

"Based on the president's insistence, please make sure that all the legal stages about the mentioned people be based on justice," the letter said. "And you personally make sure that the accused people will enjoy all freedoms and legal rights to defend themselves and their rights will not be violated," it added.

Roxana Saberi worked as a freelance reporter for news organizations including the National Public Radio. She has been detained in a notorious Tehran prison since January and was given an unusually swift one-day trial behind closed doors on Saturday on charges of spying for the United States.

Her eight-year sentence is the harshest so far meted out to a dual-national on security charges, which the U.S. has labeled as "baseless."

[See related video on http://evideo.alarabiya.net/ShowClip.aspx?ClipID=2009.04.19.05.14.05.946]

Based on the president's insistence, please make sure that all the legal stages about the mentioned people be based on justice

Letter from prosecutor