TEHRAN: Iran's judiciary confirmed on Monday that the lawyer for US hikers who were freed after being jailed on spying charges has been barred from leaving the country, but denied he was arrested.
"The office of the spokesman of the judiciary denies that Masoud Shafii, the lawyer of the three Americans, was arrested," the office said, quoted by ISNA news agency.
The statement added that the office of Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie, who is also Iran's prosecutor general, "will later elaborate on why he (Shafii) has been barred from leaving the country."
On Sunday, sources close to the case told AFP on condition of anonymity that Shaffi's "passport was confiscated by order of the judiciary," though Shafii had an exit stamp in his passport and was boarding the plane.
The source also said Shafii was arrested at his home and questioned for several hours by judiciary officials before being released, adding agents confiscated documents, his computer and his passport, but returned them later.
Shafii represented Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Sarah Shourd in a case which lasted for more than two years. He always maintained his clients were innocent, and was criticised by conservative hardliners in the Islamic republic.
The lawyer also criticised the judiciary for not allowing him proper access to the three, as required by law.
Shafii met with them briefly only three times in two years, once before the start of their trial, and once before each of two hearings in February and August.
Bauer, Fattal and Shourd were charged with illegal entry and spying on Iran after they were arrested in July 2009 along the unmarked Iran-Iraq border.
Shourd was released on bail in September 2010 on health grounds, and her two companions were freed on bail on September 21 after being sentenced in August to eight years in prison each by a Tehran revolutionary court.
In New York five days later, Fattal and Bauer accused Iran of using them as hostages in its power struggle with the West, and described hearing the anguished cries of fellow inmates being beaten in Tehran's Evin prison.
Iran's judiciary promptly denied their charges.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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