TEHRAN — An Iranian judiciary official said Tuesday that the trial of an American journalist accused of spying for the United States had begun on Monday in secret, and that a verdict was expected within two weeks.
The journalist, Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old with dual American-Iranian citizenship, was arrested in January and initially accused of working without press credentials. But last week an Iranian judge brought the far more serious charge of spying for Washington.
"She is charged with spying for foreigners," the judiciary official, Alireza Jamshidi, told the Iranian Students News Agency. "The first session of the trial was held yesterday and she defended herself for the last time."
Mr. Jamshidi said the trial was being held behind closed doors because the charges against her were security related. "She was spying for America," he said.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said that the United States is "deeply concerned" about the espionage charges and has asked Iranian diplomats for help in obtaining Ms. Saberi's immediate release.
"This charge is baseless and it's without foundation," Robert Wood, a State Department spokesman, said last week.
Mr. Jamshidi said Tuesday that Washington's intervention in the case was "ridiculous and against international laws," according to ISNA. "It is ridiculous for a person or a government to make comments about a case without examining the evidence first and to make this kind of judgment to say if a person is guilty or not."
Ms. Saberi is being held in Evin prison in northern Tehran. Her lawyer, Abdolsamad Khoramshahi, refused to speak to reporters, saying he was not authorized to talk about the case until after the trial. The trial comes at a sensitive moment in relations between Iran and the United States. President Obama has expressed a willingness to talk with Tehran after years of strained relations under the Bush administration.
Ms. Saberi grew up in Fargo, N.D., and went to Iran six years ago. She has worked for the BBC and National Public Radio, but her press credentials were revoked three years ago, according to an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hassan Qashqavi.
Ms. Saberi's parents traveled to Iran from the United States to support her. They appealed for her release in a letter last month to Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In another national security case, an Iranian court of appeals court upheld a three-year prison sentence for Silva Harotonian, an Iranian woman of Armenian descent who had worked for a United States organization, Mr. Jamshidi said.
"She is charged with crimes against national security," he said. "The appeals court upheld the sentence."
Ms. Harotonian had worked in Iran for the Washington-based International Research & Exchanges Board, a nonprofit education organization. She was arrested in June and sentenced in January.
Washington has also called on Iran to release Ms. Harotonian, whose health is reportedly poor and deteriorating.
Iran has arrested other dual nationals on spying charges in the past. Two Iranian-American scholars, Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh, were arrested in 2007 on charges of trying to overthrow the regime. Both were released later that year.