Tehran - The Iranian judiciary issued an eight-year prison term for an Iranian-American journalist on charges of spying for the United States, her lawyer told reporters in Tehran Saturday.

The court has not yet issued any official statement and no further details were available.

Roxana Saberi, 31, a reporter for US National Public Radio, has been in custody since January in Tehran's Evin prison.

The foreign ministry first said that her arrest was solely because of press activities without legal accreditation but the judiciary later charged her with espionage.

Tehran's deputy prosecutor Hassan Haddad said last week Saberi's case was sent to a revolutionary court, and claimed that she had accepted all charges. (dpa)