Iran Frees 2 American Hikers

Posted on Sep 21, 2011

AP / Press TV

Shane Bauer, left, and Josh Fattal are preparing to return home.

Two years after crossing an unmarked border into Iran, American hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal are being released from prison on $1 million bail. Convicted of espionage by the Iranians, they had been sentenced to eight years behind bars. Update: The two Americans flew Wednesday to Oman, where they raced down the stairway of a private jet and into the arms of their families.

Officials from Iraq and Oman are reported to have negotiated their freedom, with Oman paying bail for the pair. A week earlier, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had told U.S. media that the two had been granted a “unilateral pardon.” However, observers suspect that the long delay in the hikers’ release was the result of a power struggle between Ahmadinejad and conservatives close to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with the hikers becoming a means to put pressure on the U.S. and its allies. Ahmadinejad’s presidency will end in 2013. —ARK

The Guardian:

It is not clear why Iran has finally decided to release the two, but analysts have interpreted the move as an attempt to reduce tensions with the international community at a time when negotiations over its nuclear programme are deadlocked.

Read more

More Below the Ad

New and Improved Comments

We are launching a major overhaul of our comments section.

In addition to more robust spam filtering and moderation, new features include the ability to rate other comments, sort how they are displayed and respond directly via e-mail or in a thread.

Unfortunately, commenters will lose their existing Truthdig identities. It's a pain, we know, but on the plus side you will now be able to log in with a plethora of options, including Google, Twitter, Facebook and Disqus accounts.

Before launching this system we spent months in discussion with our top commenters. We listened to the feedback and we hope you like what we've come up with.

Please direct any problems or concerns to us via our contact page.