US hikers in Iran face new hearing on spying charge

TEHRAN: Two American hikers detained in Iran on spying charges face a new hearing on Sunday, coinciding with the second anniversary of their arrest, an ordeal which their lawyer hopes will have a happy ending.

Shane Bauer, aged 28 and Josh Fattal, 29, were arrested with Sarah Shourd, 32, on the unmarked border between Iran and Iraq on July 31, 2009.

Iran has accused the three of "spying and illegally entering the country."

They have pleaded not guilty to spying charges, saying they were hiking in Iraq's northern province of Kurdistan when they innocently strayed into Iran across the unmarked border.

Washington has vehemently denied Tehran's charges and has pressed for their release.

Shourd is being tried in absentia after she returned to the United States following her release on humanitarian and medical grounds in September 2010, for which bail of about 500,000 dollars was paid.

"Since the hearing date coincides with the two year anniversary of their arrest, and it is the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, I am hopeful that this case has a happy ending," their lawyer Masoud Shafii told AFP on Wednesday referring to the Muslim fasting month when compassion, the spirit of caring and sharing is advocated.

"I believe that they are innocent; the espionage charges have no relevance. Even if the court does not accept my defence, the two years they've spent behind bars is punishment enough," he added referring to the illegal entry charge.

The trial has been hit by a number of delays since November 6, 2010, when it was postponed to February 6, 2011 over what was termed "an error in the judicial proceedings."

Another hearing scheduled for May 11 this year was cancelled after Fattal and Bauer were not brought before the court, Shafii said at the time.

Shourd, who did not attend the February 6 hearing, told AFP in Washington that she will not return to Iran to join the other two in the dock.

She said she had sent Iran's revolutionary court a five-page evaluation by a clinical forensic psychologist, who concluded she was at high risk of psychological problems if she returned to face espionage charges.

Shafii said he has met Bauer and Fattal only twice, the last time on February 6, 2011 when they appeared in court for the first hearing.

"I still have not met them (for) the lawyer-client meeting that I have requested. They told me that they will inform me and I am still pursuing it," he said.

Iran in late May implicitly rejected a US State Department request to grant better access to the two by allowing Swiss diplomats to see them. Switzerland represents US interests in the absence of Washington having diplomatic relations with Iran.

Swiss embassy officials also insist they have been unable to meet the detained hikers since October 2010. They were also banned from attending the February hearing.

Bauer and Fattal were allowed to call home in late May for just the third time since their arrest, telling their families they had staged a 17-day hunger strike earlier this year after being prevented from receiving letters.

In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon late last month, the mothers of Bauer and Fattal urged the United Nations to investigate what they described as psychological torture, physical abuse and sexual harassment of their sons.

Tehran promptly denied the allegations.

The hikers' detention has added to the animosity between arch-foes Tehran and Washington, which has increased over Iran's controversial nuclear drive and outspoken remarks by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Shourd, a teacher, writer and women's rights activist, grew up in Los Angeles and later moved to Damascus where she met Bauer, a fluent Arabic-speaking freelance journalist.

He met Shourd while helping to organise anti-US demonstrations in Syria aimed at criticising the war in Iraq. They became engaged while in jail in Tehran.

Fattal, who grew up in Pennsylvania, is an environmentalist and teacher and travelled to Damascus in 2009 where he met Shourd and Bauer.

Their case has attracted high profile support in the United States.

On May 24, the legendary Muslim boxing champion Muhammad Ali supported a call for Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to free Bauer and Fattal.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011