Iran to free jailed American hiker on $500,000 bail, but prison time extended for two others

TEHRAN and ISTANBUL, Turkey — Iranian authorities are prepared to release on $500,000 bail one of three American hikers held since last year, Tehran’s chief prosecutor said Sunday.

However, the trio was formally charged at a morning session with espionage and trespassing into Iran, and the detention of the other two Americans was extended for two months, the hikers’ defense attorney told The Times.

“All my clients pleaded not guilty and did not accept the charges,” attorney Massoud Shafii said in a telephone interview, adding that the three were in “good spirits.”

Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi told reporters Sunday that bail had been set at the equivalent of $500,000 for Sarah E. Shourd,
according to various Iranian news agencies attending a briefing. But he
also said the “order of arrest for the other two American nationals has
been extended.”

The 32-year-old woman was arrested more than 13 months ago along with Americans Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer along the Iran–Iraq border during what relatives of the detainees called an ill-fated hiking trip in northern Iraq.

Shafii said he was upbeat about Shourd’s imminent
release and predicted she’d be allowed to leave the country at once,
though the prosecutor said she’d be expected to show up for any trial.

Her lawyer said he had contacted his client’s family and informed the Swiss Embassy, which represents U.S. interests in Iran in the absence of formal relations between Washington and Tehran, “to procure the $500,000” for her release.

Iranian officials, under the authority of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had days earlier said Shourd would be released Saturday morning. However, in a stark illustration of Iran’s
political infighting, they backtracked after the powerful judiciary
said the investigation of her case had not been completed. On Sunday,
Dowlatabadi said Ahmadinejad’s team had failed to “coordinate with us”
regarding Shourd’s release.

“When I heard news of Sarah Shourd’s freedom from the media, a question occurred to me,” he said. “How can
she be free without coordination” with the judiciary branch?

Shourd has reportedly complained of medical problems
while in prison. Dowlatabadi said the judiciary had originally planned
to try all three defendants at the same time but changed course after
being informed of her medical condition by Shafii.

Dowlatabadi said the case was being handled by Iran’s
ideologically motivated Revolutionary Court instead of through ordinary
legal channels because the hikers’ “dossiers were important.”

He told reporters Iran
had enough evidence to prove the three were spies and the “Americans
have responded, too,” hinting at possible behind-the-scenes diplomatic
communications between Iran and the U.S. over the hikers. Their continued detention has further strained relations between Iran and the U.S., which accuses Tehran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program and undermining peace efforts in the Middle East.

The Obama administration has denied Iranian claims that the three, two of whom had previously lived in Syria, are spies. Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address the United Nations in New York during the annual meeting of the body’s General Assembly later this month.

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