Iran frees U.S. hikers, ending two-year ordeal

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Two Americans jailed in Iran on charges of espionage and entering the nation illegally were released from Tehran’s prison after more than two years in custody.

A convoy of vehicles, including Swiss and Omani diplomats along with Iranian police, was seen leaving Evin prison Wednesday with Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer inside. The Americans were said to be heading to an Iran airport, but it remained unclear where their initial destination would be.

The two men, both 29, were driven out of the prison compound just minutes after their Iranian attorney, Masoud Shafiei, said he has completed the paperwork for their release.

“I have finished the job that I had to do as their lawyer,” Shafiei said. He obtained signatures of two judges on a bail-for-freedom deal. A $1 million bail — $500,000 for each one — was posted.

The men have been cut off from their families, friends and all contact with the outside world for 782 days. They were arrested along the Iran-Iraq border in July 2009 and sentenced last month to eight years each in prison. A third American arrested with them, Sarah Shourd, was freed last year on bail.

The hikers’ families, who had been glued to the news coverage of the process unfolding in Tehran, said earlier they believed the men would go free on Wednesday, and they were “super excited” at the prospect.

The London-based rights group Amnesty International called the release of the Americans a “long overdue step.”

“Iranian authorities have finally seen sense” and have agreed to release Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International Deputy Director for Middle East and North Africa. “They must now be allowed to leave Iran promptly to be reunited with their families.”

The three Americans — friends from their days at the University of California at Berkeley — have maintained their innocence and denied the espionage charges against them.

Their families and the U.S. government said they were just hiking in northern Iraq’s scenic and relatively peaceful Kurdish region when they may have accidentally strayed over the unmarked border with Iran.

The last direct contact family members had with Bauer and Fattal was in May 2010 when their mothers were permitted a short visit in Tehran.

Since her release last year, Shourd has lived in Oakland, Calif. Bauer, a freelance journalist, grew up in Onamia, Minn., and Fattal, an environmental activist, is from suburban Philadelphia.

Bauer proposed marriage to Shourd while in prison.

It was not clear where the two men will be reunited with their families after their release.

The Americans’ detention was used largely as a bargaining chip by the Iranian regime in its ongoing standoff with the United States government over Iran’s nuclear aspirations.

“The legal process regarding the hikers was never a normal one,” prominent Iranian attorney Muhammad Mustafaei, who has not been involved in the men’s case, told CBS News last week. “They were actually taken as hostages. They were used by the Supreme Leader because of the hostility that exists between Iran and the U.S.”

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in New York this week for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, was widely seen as intent on securing the hikers’ released to coincide with his time on U.S. soil.

But Ahmadinejad’s own tense relations with the hardline Muslim clerics who actually hold all the power in Iran led to several false-starts for the hikers’ release.

CBS

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16 responses to “Iran frees U.S. hikers, ending two-year ordeal”

  1. LEBANON101 Avatar

    iran has been holding lebanon hostage since 1979

    1. nagy_michael2 Avatar
      nagy_michael2

      Yes and unfortunately its ok with Hezbollah and their terrorists brethrens in Lebanon and slaves like Aoun and Wahab.
      But when israel did that they’re called immortal enemies.. funny how blind these people are..

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar

        Payolla … for 3 people kidnapped across a border. Not forgetting Gilad Shalit & his now-5 years …..

  2.  Avatar

    iran has been holding lebanon hostage since 1979

    1.  Avatar

      Yes and unfortunately its ok with Hezbollah and their terrorists brethrens in Lebanon and slaves like Aoun and Wahab.
      But when israel did that they’re called immortal enemies.. funny how blind these people are..

      1.  Avatar

        Payolla … for 3 people kidnapped across a border.

      2.  Avatar

        Payolla … for 3 people kidnapped across a border.

  3. Last time your getting any hostages…Better start building bomb shelters cause were coming for your nuclear program..That was one of the only hold-backs.. Be nice if Lebanon could simultaneously throw out the Hezbollah bums it would be great

  4. Last time your getting any hostages…Better start building bomb shelters cause were coming for your nuclear program..That was one of the only hold-backs.. Be nice if Lebanon could simultaneously throw out the Hezbollah bums it would be great

  5. Show a Persian money, he will do. 

  6.  Avatar

    Show a Persian money, he will do. 

  7. shankarees Avatar

    One of the hostages comes from Lebanese immigrants!

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      You think Ahmadinejad was trying to kiss a little Lebanese ass? Hmmm … no.

  8.  Avatar

    One of the hostages comes from Lebanese immigrants!

    1.  Avatar

      You think Ahmadinejad was trying to kiss a little Lebanese ass? Hmmm … no.

  9.  Avatar

    One of the hostages comes from Lebanese immigrants!

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