PRESS RELEASES
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PRESS RELEASE: Families of Shane Bauer & Josh Fattal Lead Rally of Hope & Prayer in New York
Jul 29th
July 29, 2011
FAMILIES OF SHANE BAUER AND JOSH FATTAL LEAD RALLY OF HOPE AND PRAYER IN NEW YORK TWO DAYS BEFORE THEIR “FINAL” COURT HEARING IN TEHRAN
Trial Session Timed for Second Anniversary of Their Detention
The families of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal will lead a peaceful rally of hope outside the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York at noon EDT on Friday, less than 48 hours before the two Americans are scheduled to appear in an Iranian court. Tehran’s Chief Prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi has said he expects the court to take a “final decision” in the case on Sunday, the second anniversary of their arrest.
Bauer, a freelance photojournalist, and Fattal, an environmental advocate, both 29, are charged with illegal entry and are falsely accused of espionage.
“If there is fairness in Iran’s legal system, their release is close at hand. I ask everyone here to pray for the next 36 hours until Shane and Josh walk into that courtroom, so that when they walk out they are finally free men and can begin their journey back into our arms,” Bauer’s father Al Bauer said in remarks prepared for the rally.
Bauer and Fattal were arrested with Bauer’s fiancée, Sarah Shourd, on July 31, 2009 on the unmarked border between Iran and Kurdistan, a safe and semi-autonomous area of northern Iraq where they were hiking during a vacation. Shourd, who is 32, was released last September after 410 days in solitary confinement.
Shourd, who had been living in the Middle East with her fiancé until their arrest, used her statement to wish Muslims in Iran and everywhere a Blessed Ramadan on behalf of the families of the two men. “Please, if you could make a little room in your prayers on the eve of Ramadan for my fiancé, my friend and our families, it would mean the world to us,” she said.
“I know in my heart that when Shane and Josh walk out of prison, they will hold no bitterness towards anyone. I pray that day is very soon. And I know their hearts will be filled with the same love and respect for the world that they had two years ago. If anything, they will have more,” Shourd added.
Bauer and Fattal were not formally charged until Shourd’s release last September and have appeared in court only once – on February 6 this year when they testified to their innocence verbally and in writing. Their last contact with their families was on May 22, in one of only three brief telephone calls home they have been able to make since their arrest.
Fattal’s mother Laura Fattal, Faraz Sanei, Middle East Researcher for Human Rights Watch and Shahid Mahmood, prominent Muslim-American from the New York area, were also scheduled to address the rally. Bauer and Fattal will be represented in court by their Iranian lawyer, Mr. Masoud Shafii.
“We do not expect to get much sleep between now and Sunday,” Laura Fattal said. “The judiciary in Iran says it will be the final hearing. We hope and pray that this is true. Josh and Shane are clearly innocent. 730 days is more than enough. It is time for them to get back to their lives. That time is now.”
PRESS RELEASE: HARROWING DETAILS ABOUT PHYSICAL ABUSE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE REVEALED
Jun 9th
FREED HIKER SARAH SHOURD DISCLOSES PHYSICAL ASSAULT ON SHANE BAUER AND JOSH FATTAL BY IRANIAN PRISON GUARD; DETAINED HIKERS FEARED THEY WOULD BE EXECUTED
Families Say Incidents Heighten Their Concern for Welfare of Jailed Americans
A guard in Evin Prison pushed jailed American Josh Fattal down stairs because he was furious that he took extra food and then repeatedly threw his friend Shane Bauer against the wall of his cell until his head began to bleed, according to former detainee Sarah Shourd. She also said the three friends feared they would be executed a few days after their arrest more than 22 months ago when a soldier who was guarding them began cocking his weapon.
Shourd, who is Bauer’s fiancée, told the BBC Persian TV show Be Ebarate Digar, that the beating occurred before she was released on humanitarian grounds and payment of $500,000 bail last September. Shourd also recounted the assault in an interview with the BBC’s HARDTalk which was broadcast on BBC World News TV on Thursday.
Shourd did not relate any other physical abuse but said she had no way of knowing what may have happened to Bauer and Fattal since her release. “My worst fear is that they’re not safe – especially when we haven’t seen them for so long,” Shourd told BBC Persian TV’s Enayat Fani. “There are months at a time where they don’t see anyone from the outside world. They don’t have consular access, they’re not allowed to see their lawyer, and we fear the worst.”
Shourd described another incident soon after their arrest when the three friends were forced into a car late at night and driven to a prison she could not identify. Shourd said she, Bauer and Fattal began “shaking with fear” when a soldier sitting in the front the vehicle started cocking his gun. “That was the most terrifying moment of my life,” Shourd said. “I just prayed to God that I would survive –that that wouldn’t be my last day on this earth. We just held hands and cried and begged them not to hurt us.”
Bauer, 28, Fattal, 29, and Shourd, 32, were arrested by Iranian forces on July 31, 2009, while they were hiking behind a resort area of Kurdistan, a relatively safe region of Iraq where they were on vacation. The border area there is not marked. Iran’s judiciary has indicted them on baseless charges of espionage but Bauer and Fattal were not brought to court for a scheduled trial hearing on May 11. Iranian authorities have failed to explain their absence.
“We are shocked and angry at the way Shane and Josh are being treated and the terrible incidents that Sarah has told us about only heighten our grave concern for their physical and mental welfare. The people who are holding Shane and Josh are breaking Iran’s laws as well as international law and behaving shamefully. This nightmare must end and Shane and Josh must be released,” the men’s families said in a statement.
Fattal’s mother Laura and Bauer’s mother Cindy Hickey launched a rolling hunger strike on May 19 in solidarity with their sons, who went on hunger strike for 17 days earlier this year after their guards stopped bringing them letters from their families.
“There were some guards that had sympathy for us and they were nice to us and there were other guards that were very cruel, and that hated us, just because we were there and they assumed we had done something wrong,” Shourd said.
Shourd told the BBC that Fattal regularly collected extra food to take back to the small cell he shares with Bauer after a daily meeting they had with her in an open-air room and had never had a problem. One day, however, a guard “went crazy” and tried to stop him. Fattal was pushed down stairs while Shourd and Bauer were torn away from their friend and forced back into their cells, where they both began pounding on their doors and screaming.
Shourd said she learned at their meeting the next day that Fattal had not been hurt but Bauer had been assaulted. “The same guard, he came back, the one that was angry, and he started to push Shane against the wall, just slam him against the wall and every time he slammed him against the wall, Shane would stand up and he would say ‘Where’s Josh?’ ‘Where’s my friend?’ and he would slam him against the wall again,” Shourd said. “He slammed him against the wall I don’t know how many times, 10, 15 times, until the back of his head had blood.”
Bauer, a freelance photojournalist and Shourd, a teacher of English, were living in Damascus, Syria at the time of their vacation in Kurdistan. Fattal, an environmental advocate, was visiting them. The two men have been allowed to make only three brief telephone calls to their families since their arrest, most recently on May 22. Fattal spent his second birthday in jail on June 4.
PRESS RELEASE: Josh Fattal Spends Second Birthday in Prison in Iran
Jun 4th
June 4, 2011
JOSH FATTAL SPENDS SECOND BIRTHDAY IN PRISON IN IRAN
American Hiker’s Grandmother, 85, Leads Family, Friends, and Former Colleagues and Students in Solidarity Hunger Strike
American environmental advocate Josh Fattal spent his birthday in an Iranian jail for a second consecutive year today as his extended family, friends, and former colleagues and students joined a solidarity hunger strike.
Josh, now 29, and his close friend Shane Bauer, 28, were arrested on July 31, 2009 while hiking in the unmarked border region of Iraqi Kurdistan and are being held in a 10-foot by 14-foot cell in Evin Prison, Tehran, with no access to their lawyer, Masoud Shafii, and almost no contact at all with their families. More than 40,000 people around the world have signed a petition for their immediate release.
“Never in my entire life would I have imagined such madness; that I would have a grandson held for no reason in an Iranian prison, and our entire family fasting in protest,” Fattal’s grandmother Muriel Felleman, 85, said.
“My husband turned 85 the day Josh was captured and we’ve not seen him for almost two years. The people in Iran who are preventing Josh and Shane from coming home are depriving their grandparents of the joy of spending time with them in our twilight years. They’re ruining all our lives and they need to stop,” she said.
Mrs. Felleman, frail from a recent surgery, led members of Josh’s family in Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas and Washington State, including his 15-year-old cousin Brandon, in a day-long fast that is part of a rolling hunger strike launched on May 19 by Josh’s mother Laura and Shane’s mother Cindy Hickey.
The protest began after the Iranian judiciary failed without explanation to bring Josh and Shane to a planned trial hearing on May 11. The two men and Shane’s fiancée Sarah Shourd, who was released on humanitarian grounds last September, face fabricated charges of espionage.
Others joining the rolling hunger strike on Saturday included members of Aprovecho, a sustainable living community in Cottage Grove, Oregon, where Josh worked from 2005 to 2008, and former students across the United States and as far afield as Cambodia, China, Haiti, Rwanda, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
Josh mentored 33 students as a Teaching Fellow on an International Honors Program “Health and Community” study tour to Switzerland, India, China and South Africa in 2009.
Rosemary Kirincic of the Aprovecho staff said, “Josh Fattal has been a crucial member of our community, contributing to groundbreaking work in environmental education by initiating the 100-mile diet and other programs. The world needs him to continue that good work. We at Aprovecho, as part of the environmental community, join Josh’s family today to decry the ongoing injustice that is Josh and Shane’s detention.”
Farah Mawani, a senior policy and research analyst at the Mental Health Commission of Canada, was a member of the traveling faculty on Josh’s 2009 IHP program. “For more than 22 months, Josh and Shane have suffered terrible isolation and injustice that threatens to leave lasting psychological scars. People all over the world have grown to know their selflessness and innocence through our hearts. The groundswell of desire to see Josh and Shane free is unstoppable and I appeal to Iran to show reason at last,” she said.
Shane and Josh at Aprovecho in happier times
Josh and Shane, a freelance photojournalist who was living in Syria with Sarah at the time of their vacation in Kurdistan, have been allowed to make only three brief telephone calls to their families since their arrest. In their most recent call, on May 22, the families learned that Josh and Shane had been on hunger strike for 17 days earlier this year after their jailers withheld family letters.
Josh’s elder brother, Alex, who joined the hunger strike at Aprovecho, said, “Of the 673 days that Josh and Shane have needlessly spent imprisoned in Iran, today is certainly one of the worst. Josh and Shane should be out celebrating life, enjoying their freedom in the company of family and friends. Instead, they are locked up and cut off from the world and the people who love them only because they hold American passports.”
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PRESS RELEASE: NOTABLE IRANIAN-AMERICANS JOIN HUNGER STRIKE FOR FREEDOM OF IMPRISONED HIKERS SHANE BAUER AND JOSH FATTAL
Jun 2nd
June 1, 2011
NOTABLE IRANIAN-AMERICANS JOIN HUNGER STRIKE FOR FREEDOM OF IMPRISONED HIKERS SHANE BAUER AND JOSH FATTAL
Former Detainee Roxana Saberi Will Launch Week Three of Solidarity Fast
Prominent Iranian-Americans including former detainee Roxana Saberi will join a solidarity hunger strike on Thursday in the campaign for the release of imprisoned American hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal after almost 22 months in virtual isolation.
Saberi, who was working as a freelance journalist in Tehran at the time of her arrest in January 2009, will launch Week Three of the rolling fast on June 2 before passing the torch to Amnesty International USA Spokesperson Nazanin Boniadi, the British-Iranian actress, and Bauer’s fiancée, released hiker Sarah Shourd, the following day.
Saberi was sentenced to eight years in jail on false charges of espionage and released 100 days after her arrest after an Iranian court overturned the sentence. Bauer and Fattal, both 28, have now been held for more than 670 days – nearly seven times as long. They also face unfounded charges of espionage but were not brought to court for a scheduled trial hearing on May 11. Iranian authorities have not explained their absence.
“I stand in solidarity with Shane and Josh and call for their immediate and unconditional release. Iranian authorities are in gross violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. As a signatory, Iran is obligated to comply with its provisions, drop the trumped-up charges of espionage against these innocent men and allow them to return home to their families and loved ones.” Boniadi said.
Shourd, who was released in September 2010 on compassionate grounds after 410 days in solitary confinement, will join Boniadi for their joint fast on Friday, June 3. They will be available throughout the day for joint interviews in Los Angeles.
“Hunger striking makes me think of all the selfless things that Shane and Josh did for me in prison. Our love and friendship were all that defended us against the constant pain of separation from our families and the extreme physical and mental restriction of being imprisoned without reason,” Shourd, 32, said. “Now that I’m free, all I want is the same freedom for Shane and Josh. The world knows they they’ve done nothing wrong and we are determined to continue fasting for as long as that takes.”
The entire Fattal family will hunger strike on June 4, Josh’s 29th birthday and his second in Evin Prison, where he and Shane share a 10×14 foot cell to which they are confined for 23 hours a day.
Trita Parsi, the founder and president of the National Iranian American Council, and a group of Iranian exchange students will also join the hunger strike in Week Three.
The mothers of Shane and Josh, Cindy Hickey and Laura Fattal, launched the hunger strike in solidarity with their sons on May 19. Hundreds of friends and supporters have joined family members and prominent U.S. and overseas campaigners to support their cause.
Bauer and Fattal have been denied any access to their lawyer, Masoud Shafii, and have been allowed to make only three brief telephone calls to their families in more than 21 months. In their most recent call, on May 22, they disclosed that they had staged a 17-day hunger strike earlier this year after the prison authorities stopped bringing them letters from their families.
Bauer, Fattal and Shourd, all graduates of the University of California at Berkeley, were arrested by Iranian forces on July 31, 2009 on the unmarked border with Kurdistan, a relatively safe region of Iraq where they were hiking behind a local tourist site during a vacation. Bauer, a photojournalist, and Shourd, an activist-teacher, were living in Syria at the time of their arrest. Fattal, an environmental advocate, was visiting them.
Boxing legend Muhammad Ali and other prominent U.S Muslims, Yusuf Islam, Íngrid Betancourt, Noam Chomsky, Mia Farrow, Rashid Khalidi, Mairead Maguire, Sean Penn, Desmond Tutu, Ban Ki-moon, Terry Waite and President Barack Obama, among others, have called for their immediate release. For more information about the hunger strike and to join the fast, please click here or here. Shortlink: http://bit.ly/SSJfast
