TEHRAN (Reuters) - The lawyer representing an Iranian-American journalist jailed by Tehran for espionage said Monday he was optimistic she would be acquitted on appeal.

Roxana Saberi was sentenced Saturday to eight years in jail on charges of spying for the United States in a verdict that could complicate Washington’s efforts for reconciliation with the Islamic Republic after three decades of mutual mistrust.

But in an intervention welcomed by her defense lawyer Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Tehran’s general prosecutor Sunday to ensure that the 31-year-old freelance reporter enjoys full legal rights to defend herself.

In a decree to Tehran’s top court official, judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi said the “different dimensions of this case ... must be considered at the appeals stage in a careful, quick and fair way.”

Khorramshahi told Reuters: “I’m very hopeful and optimistic she will be acquitted in the appeal stage, or at least that there will be a reduction in her sentence.”

“The attention of the head of government to this issue and case can have a positive impact on the proceeding,” he said, confirming he planned to lodge the appeal early next week.

Analysts cautioned against seeing Saberi’s conviction as a sign of Tehran rebuffing overtures by the new U.S. administration of President Barack Obama, who has offered a new beginning of engagement if Iran “unclenches its fist.”

Iran, which marked its annual armed forces day Saturday with a relatively low-key parade and little sign of the usual anti-Western slogans, says it would welcome constructive talks with world powers on its disputed nuclear work and other issues.

Saberi, who is a citizen of both the United States and Iran, was arrested in January for working in the country after her press credentials had expired.

“I don’t think it has got anything to do with the Obama opening,” said Ali Ansari, an Iran expert at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. “It may affect it but I don’t think it was driven or determined by it.” Ansari said he would not be surprised if her sentence was reduced on appeal.

GOODWILL GESTURE?

Obama said Sunday he was “deeply concerned” for the safety of Saberi and urged Tehran to free her, saying he was confident she was not involved in spying.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Hassan Qashqavi, said the United States should respect rulings issued by the Islamic state’s courts, but that Saberi had the right to appeal.

File photo of US-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi posing for a photograph in Bam, 1,250 km (776 miles) southeast of Tehran March 31, 2004. An Iranian court has sentenced Iranian-American freelance journalist Roxana Saberi to eight years in jail, her lawyer told Reuters April 18, 2009. Saberi was accused of spying for the United States. REUTERS/Stringer/Files

Referring to the statement by Obama, who has worked as a civil rights lawyer, Qashqavi said one should not express views on a case without studying its contents: “I’m sure some American officials have also studied law,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said releasing Saberi, who has worked for the BBC and U.S. National Public Radio (NPR), would serve as a goodwill gesture.

Her father, Reza Saberi, told NPR Saturday she had been coerced into statements that she later retracted.

Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based media rights group, has called Saberi’s conviction “unjust under the Iranian criminal code” and said it was a warning to foreign reporters working in Iran ahead of its June presidential election.

Washington cut ties with Iran shortly after the Islamic revolution in 1979, but Obama is seeking to engage it on a range of issues, including the nuclear dispute.

Iran says it wants to see a real switch in Washington’s policies away from those of former President George W. Bush, who led a drive to isolate the country because of its nuclear program. Iran says it only wants to generate electricity, but the United States suspects it seeks to build an atomic bomb.