Klobuchar: Saberi at risk of becoming Iranian ‘pawn’

American journalist Roxana Saberi is at risk of becoming “an international pawn” between the U.S. and Iran, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) warned Monday.

Klobuchar said that an interview with the father of the journalist, who is being held in Iran, showed the “quiet pain” over the manipulation of Saberi, who is being held in Iranian prison after being convicted of espionage in a closed-doors trial.

“And just your interview with Mr. Saberi…just showed his quiet pain that he is in, that his daughter just can’t be made an international pawn with Iran, that we have to fix this, and we have to bring her home,” Klobuchar told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.

Klobuchar called Saberi’s trial a “mockery,” but said that diplomacy might result in a reduced sentence and return for Saberi.

“There are cases all around the country like this, where people are sentenced to inordinate long sentence, and then they are reduced or they are brought home,” Minnesota’s lone senator explained. “The hope is through diplomacy and the overtures that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama are making through the Swiss and others that we will be able to get something done here. Because this just is a senseless result, that she would be held in this jail for eight years, this American citizen.”