AN American journalist held for four months in Iran was freed yesterday and reunited with her parents after an appeals court suspended her eight-year prison sentence on charges of spying for the US.

A LAWYER for a jailed American journalist in Iran said yesterday he was optimistic that an appeals court will reduce her eight-year prison sentence for allegedly spying for the United States.

An American journalist who has been convicted of spying in Iran has gone on a hunger strike to protest against her imprisonment, according to her father.