Tehran, Apr. 22 : Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi has written a public love letter to his fiancée Roxana Saberi, the American-Iranian journalist sentenced by Iran on spying charges.

Ghobadi, whose love letter proclaims Saberi’s innocence and denounces her imprisonment, hopes his words can succeed where Barack Obama’s have failed.

In a move that has become the latest standoff between Tehran and Washington, Saberi was given an eight-year jail sentence.

Barack Obama has demanded the release of the 31-year-old, who has dual Iranian and American nationality. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also intervened in the case.

In his open letter, penned "with tears in my eyes", Ghobadi claimed that Saberi was a victim of Iran''s "political games" because she happened to be the holder of an American passport, the Independent reports.

Coming publicly of their relationship for the first time since her arrest, he begged the authorities to release her and described her as "an Iranian" who had devoted her time to researching a book in praise of Iran.

He said she was a woman "too pure" to be used for political purposes, and accused those Iranians who were aware of her research and her sympathies of keeping silent despite knowing "how guiltless she is".

Begging the judiciary to let him at least testify at her appeal he said that, as the person who had "shared every moment with her", it was impossible for her to have worked as a spy.

In January, the former beauty queen was arrested on the charges of buying alcohol, and later she was later accused of working without the proper media accreditation before being charged with espionage.

She had appealed her sentence and may begin a hunger strike. (ANI)