Two Americans jailed as spies in Iran released
Posted Sep 21, 2011 10:17:51 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TEHRAN, Iran – Two American hikers have been released after being held behind bars for over two years after they were convicted of being spies, CNN reported Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, their lawyer said this follows a court approval of a $1-million bail deal.
The two 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 case of Bauer and Fattal, who were convicted of spying for the United States, has deepened strains in the already fraught relationship between Washington and Tehran.
Last September, Shourd was released after a $500,000 bail was posted. She was then flown on a private plane to the Omani capital Muscat.
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.
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 last direct contact family members had with Bauer and Fattal was in May 2010 when their mothers were permitted a short visit in Tehran.
