THE TRIAL
Information, editorials, news and updates about the trial of the hikers.
VIDEO: Happy Birthday Shane: Shane Bauer in the eyes of his loved ones
Aug 3rd
In the days leading up to a decision in Iranian courts regarding innocent hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, this video, first shown at a birthday tribute to Shane, takes a closer look at Shane’s work as a journalist/photographer before his captivity in Iran.
Here some of Shane’s closest friends, colleagues and family members talk about why Shane first traveled to the Middle East, why he began intensively studying Arabic when he was 19 and why he became a journalist and photographer.
Filmed by Natalie Avital and edited by Bobby Field. Additional footage from David Martinez and Jacqueline Soohen.
2 YEARS TOO LONG Weekend of Mobilization – July 29-31 2011
Jul 19th
TAKE ACTION on the weekend of July 29-31!
July 31st will be the second anniversary of Josh and Shane’s unjust detention and their “final hearing” in an Iranian court.
We need to call out LOUD and CLEAR for their far too long denied FREEDOM!!!
After two years of playing games with Josh and Shane’s lives, our families, and everyone that yearns to see them free, Iranian authorities have the opportunity to finally show the world that they are capable of compassion, putting humanitarianism above politics, and living up to promises they have made for nearly two years now.
At the same time, we cannot sit and wait passively for Iranian authorities to do the right thing. Iran needs to know that the world is watching what its judiciary does. We are calling on YOU to take action in your community, in whichever way feels right for you. You can put up posters in your community, you can light a candle, you can say a prayer, you can record a video or write a song, you can write an op-ed or post a blog, you can screen ‘Free Shane and Josh: An Urgent Plea for Compassion’ (available on DVD), and you can hold an event and invite your local media to cover it. The important thing is that you make yourself visible, make yourself heard, and make it crystal clear that enough is enough!
This is our chance to show Iran the range of people and communities who are determined to see Josh and Shane free. We urge you to join us in what we pray will be the final push for their FREEDOM!
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your solidarity. ~ The Bauer, Fattal and Shourd Families
WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Please RSVP to our general facebook event listing for the weekend to get us started on identifying locations and organizers who are able to get something off the ground.
2. Please download, share, print and post the postcards in this blog post. Post them on facebook and twitter, use them as avatars, print them as postcards and share them with everyone you can!
3. As you mobilize, please do include this great initiative being coordinated by a group of friends of Sarah, Shane & Josh in your plans – both in terms of your individual campaign actions and in spreading the word to your networks. Shane and Josh need ALL the voices they can get calling for their FREEDOM!!!
CALL EVERYDAY! For more details (number, who to call, and what to say), please see http://twoyearsistoolong.wordpress.com/
Please help us ensure that we build the strongest collective voice that we can!
On behalf of Sarah, Shane & Josh and their families and friends, thanks so incredibly much for all of your past and ongoing efforts to FREE ALL THREE!!!
Farah for Free the Hikers
Fast for Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer! May 9-11 2011
May 6th
Three Day Fast for Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer
In support of our friends being held in Tehran’s Evin Prison for almost 2 years we are fasting from May 9th-11th leading up to their second trial . Please join us to raise awareness of this injustice in any way you can. People will be fasting in many different ways-from juice fasts to simply giving up coffee for three days.
If you are on facebook, please RSVP and invite your friends here. And make sure to sign onto our facebook page for the latest updates. If you are not on facebook, please go to twitter or our website for updates and share this post as far and wide as you can.
Solidarity,
Rosemary Kirincic and Noah Wemple
Cottage Grove, OR
NB: Sarah is very moved by the solidarity people around the world are showing through this action. She sends her thanks directly to all of you:
“Shane, Josh and I resorted to hunger striking several times in prison to try and gain access to our families and lawyer. Thanks to everyone who’s doing this.”
Statement from Families of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal Regarding Sunday’s Court Hearing
Feb 8th
The families of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal made the following statement today regarding Sunday’s court hearing in Tehran:
“We are pleased that Shane and Josh have had the opportunity to explain their innocence to the Court and hope that the Iranian authorities will now move to resolve their case so that they finally can come home after 18 months of detention, isolation and uncertainty. While the hearing was closed to the public, consular representatives and the media, we understand that Shane and Josh were able to make lengthy statements about their innocence both verbally and in writing. Unfortunately their attorney, Mr. Masoud Shafii, Esq., was not permitted to meet Shane and Josh before or after the hearing. Shane and Josh had no intention of entering Iran during their hike in Iraqi Kurdistan and meant no harm to the Iranian people or its government. Now that the Court has heard their testimony first hand, we hope and pray that truth and justice will at long last prevail. In the meantime, we continue to worry terribly about their well-being after such a lengthy detention.”
CNN VIDEO: #USHIKERS GO ON TRIAL
Feb 7th
REPUBLISHED FROM CNN:
U.S. hikers held in Iran go on trial
Tehran, Iran (CNN) — The trial of three U.S. hikers started Sunday in Iran, according to the office of the lawyer representing them.
Iran accuses Americans Shane Bauer, 28, Josh Fattal, 28, and Sarah Shourd, 32, of spying and trespassing.
They were detained July 31, 2009, after they allegedly strayed across an unmarked border into Iran while hiking in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
Shourd was released on bail in September 2010 because of a medical condition and immediately left the country. She has not responded to a court summons to return to stand trial, lawyer Masoud Shafii said Saturday.
Iranian authorities said she will be tried in absentia if she doesn’t appear in court.
The trial is closed to the press and the public, as is normally the case with revolutionary court proceedings. Iranian state media reported Sunday that not-guilty pleas had been entered for the three hikers.
Livia Lea Agosti, Swiss Ambassador to Iran
The Swiss ambassador to Iran, who represents American interests in the country, told CNN that Sunday’s trial will likely not continue the next day, but at a later date.
“It’s going to be soon,” Ambassador Livia Lea Agosti said, though she declined to divulge her source. “It’s not going to be another three-month wait.”
Agosti was not invited to attend the hikers’ trial but showed up anyway, she said. She was not able to enter the courtroom but she put in a request to see Bauer and Fattal, according to official IRNA news agency. The pair were present in the courtroom for the proceedings, she told CNN.
Agosti also said that Shourd’s decision not to return to Iran to stand trial was her own.
“This was Shourd’s personal decision and I don’t have any information as to why she didn’t appear for the trial,” the ambassador said, according to IRNA.
Shafii, the attorney, said he had been denied permission to see Bauer and Fattal the day before the trial began. He told CNN he has reviewed his clients’ case file and doesn’t see any evidence of a crime.
“In my opinion, they haven’t done anything wrong,” Shafii said. “The accusation of spying is baseless, and if they trespassed into Iran, it wasn’t their fault.”
Shafii said the border area where the hikers are accused of trespassing is unmarked and anyone could unwittingly cross over into Iran.
Human rights groups have condemned their arrests and their lengthy wait for a trial in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.
CNN’s Reza Sayah contributed to this report
