MEDIA COVERAGE
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
INTERVIEW WITH #USHIKERS’ LAWYER ABOUT THEIR TRIAL
Feb 7th
REPUBLISHED FROM INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN IRAN:
American Hikers’ Laywer Unable to See Them Before Trial: I’m disappointed; The Case is Extremely Political!
Massoud Shafiee, lawyer representing the three American hikers talked to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran about today’s trial session. “The main problem with the court was that the case review was not completed in this session. I had expected that this session would lead to a ruling, and that this would be the last trial session for the suspects; unfortunately, even though the session lasted 2-3 hours, the review was not completed. Anyhow, in answer to my objection, they promised that the next session would be in the near future,” he told the Campaign.
Asked whether he was able to see his clients and read their case files, Massoud Shafiee said: “I was able to review the case. But despite my repeated requests to see my clients, I was not allowed to do so. They were supposed to be available to me one-to-two hours before the session today, and I arrived the courts early, but they were brought to court from prison fifteen minutes after the scheduled court time, and we had to go directly into court.”
“Today I objected again to these circumstances, where I was not able to see my clients before court in order to talk to them. Judge Salavati promised to give me an extensive visit in prison. We will have to wait and see what happens,” said Massoud Shafiee.
“Fortunately, they were brought to court without handcuffs and prison uniforms. They were both wearing normal clothes. I sat next to them. They were well,” said Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer’s lawyer.
Regarding whether the two Americans were allowed to defend themselves in court, Massoud Shafiee said: “I am pleased with this. One of the reasons the court proceedings had to be extended into another session was this. All their statements were translated into Persian by a Persian translator, and then the judge’s words were translated for them into English. My clients were able to make their statements. The two of them and I did not accept the indictment and we refuted all the charges.”
Massoud Shafiee said that his request for releasing Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer on bail until court ruling was not accepted. “My whole request was that they be released on bail until the verdicts are issued, and that they stay at the Swiss Ambassador’s home at the Swiss Embassy during this time; [my request] was not accepted. Now we only want for the next session to be scheduled soon, and that I am allowed to see my clients in prison,” he said.
The lawyer told the Campaign that in today’s court session, Sarah Shourd, the other suspect in the case who was released on bail several months ago due to her illness and returned to US, was also tried. “I had asked Sarah to write her defense bill, which she dispatched to me through the Swiss Embassy, and I submitted it to the court today. And now my least request is that the other two be released as soon as possible, too,” Shafiee said.
Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Josh Fattal, three American hikers were arrested on 30 January 2009 on the border of Iran and Kurdistan Iraq, and they were charged with espionage and illegal entry. On 14 September 2010, one of the three prisoners, Sarah Shourd, was released on bail of $500,000 after spending months in solitary confinement. The other two remain inside Tehran’s Evin Prison, and despite their lawyer’s efforts, they have not been granted bail orders for temporary release.
VIDEO: Noam Chomsky Testifies to Shane & Josh’s Good Character
Jan 19th
Noam Chomsky
World renown linguist and public intellectual Noam Chomsky calls for the immediate release of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, who Iranian border guards detained while on a recreational hiking trip in Iraqi Kurdistan. He offers to testify to their good character and record of advocating for social and environmental justice.
Shane and Josh have been unjustly detained since July 31, 2009. So far they have been treated as political collateral. They were told their case was political after just over one month. It is time they receive compassion and are allowed to return to their families.
For more information, see this article in the New York Times.
Noam Chomsky Calls for Immediate Release of Josh & Shane
VIDEO: Interview with Alex Fattal, Brother of Josh Fattal | VOA Persian @VOAPNN
Oct 26th
VIDEO EXCERPT FROM VOA PERSIAN
Alex Fattal, cherished older brother of Josh Fattal, Is interviewed by the Persian program of the Voice of America. His interview is dubbed in Farsi and takes place against the backdrop of a film about his brother, ‘Josh Fattal: 444 Days in Iran…and counting.’
SPECIAL SCREENING OF SHANE BAUER’S FILM ABOUT DARFUR
Oct 19th
Special Screening of Songs to Enemies and Deserts
Free the Hikers, in conjunction with MN Film Arts, are hosting a special screening of this documentary created by Shane Bauer and David Martinez. Songs to Enemies and Deserts is a work of art created by Shane and David about the people of Darfur and their pursuit of a peaceful community. Please join us!!
- DATE: October 23, 2010
- TIME: 1:30 PM (35 minutes in length)
- PLACE: St Anthony Main
- ADDRESS: 115 SE Main St, Minneapolis, MN 55414
- COST: $12 ($8 Students)
- FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE
- DOWNLOAD PDF FLYER
- EVENT PAGE ON MAIN FREE THE HIKERS SITE
This documentary is about an area of Sudan that is controlled by two factions of armed rebels. It is about the daily lives of the farmers and herders who live there as they interact with the rebels who try and hold the forces of the Janjaweed and the Sudanese army at bay.
INTERVIEW WITH DAVID & SHANE FOR CURRENT TV ABOUT THE FILM:
This is a short news piece that Current TV did about Songs to Enemies and Deserts. Shane is on the viewer’s right and his co-director, David Martinez is on the left.
SHANE BAUER ON MAKING THE FILM, REPUBLISHED FROM HIS WEBSITE:
Songs to Enemies and Deserts:
A Film About The Rebels Of Darfur
From the mountains of Jebel Marra in central Darfur a ragged group of rebels swept down onto Sudanese military bases in 2003, routing the government’s soldiers and making off with rifles, artillery, and vehicles. The Sudan Liberation Army had scored its first victory, and no one could predict what would follow. Instead of taking on the rebels directly, the Khartoum government sent bombers and horse mounted militias to murder and terrorize Darfuri civilians. The ensuing horrors were documented by the international news media and the world’s outcry was part of the reason that the attacks subsided, at least temporarily. With the government murdering the civilian population to quell the rebellion, the rebels became the civilians’ only protection force.
Who are these men and why did they begin fighting in the first place, and what part do they play in the ongoing situation that is Darfur? Their demands are widely supported by the civilian population: they want roads and schools, clean water, health care, and representation in their country’s despotic government, controlled by an elite that has ruled from the country’s northern region since the Sudanese gained independence from the British in 1956.
David Martinez and I wanted to understand these rebels’ world, their motivations, their histories, who they were and why they fought. We felt that in all of the attention that Darfur was getting, the Darfuri people themselves were often portrayed as abject victims, with hands outstretched, needing the west to come to their rescue. And yet here were Darfuris who had risen up against a murderous and racist regime, people who were very far from being helpless Africans.
In August 2007 we went and found them in North Darfur, lived with them for five weeks, and shot a movie about them.
ABOUT THE FILM:
Songs To Enemies And Deserts, (35 minutes), NTSC, Color, Filmed on digital video. In Arabic, Zaghawa, and English with English subtitles. Directed by David Martinez and Shane Bauer, photographed by David Martinez, edited by David Martinez, Shane Bauer, and Iona Sidi. Sound mixed by Luis Guerra, Terremoto Studios, New Mexico.
SCENE FROM THE FILM:
Our heartfelt thanks to MN Film Arts for their assistance & to all supporters of Free The Hikers!
Sarah was released September 14, 2010. Shane and Josh remain in detention.
Please show your support for our efforts to release them to their families.
ALL proceeds go to FREE THE HIKERS!
VIDEO: SARAH SHOURD ON DEMOCRACY NOW!
Sep 29th
REPUBLISHED FROM DEMOCRACY NOW:
Freed American Hiker Sarah Shourd Reflects on 14 Months in Iranian Prison and Calls on Iran to Release Her Two Friends
In July of 2009, Sarah Shourd and her now-fiancé Shane Bauer and their friend Josh Fattal were detained and jailed in Iran after being arrested near the Iran-Iraq border while they were on a hiking trip. Earlier this month, Shourd was released on “humanitarian grounds” on $500,000 bail, but Iran is continuing to hold Bauer and Fattal.
Sarah Shourd joins us today to discuss her time in solitary confinement, her political activism, how they were detained, her engagement to Bauer, and why she opposes a US attack on Iran. “I would really like to thank people and ask them to not slow down, to not wait—put my freedom on pause and wait with me, so that we can all enjoy it together once Shane and Josh are with us,” Shourd said. [includes rush transcript]
SARAH SHOURD APPEARS ON OPRAH TODAY
Sep 23rd
In her continuing efforts to help free her fiancé, Shane Bauer, and friend, Josh Fattal, Sarah has agreed to appear on Oprah today. Please watch her today on ABC!
PREVIEW OF SARAH SHOURD’S INTERVIEW ON OPRAH
An Oprah Show Exclusive: Freed Hiker Sarah Shourd’s First National Television Interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show Thursday, September 23.
CHICAGO, IL — In her first national television interview, freed hiker Sarah Shourd is speaking out about being held captive as a prisoner in Iran for 410 days, largely in solitary confinement, her pleas to end the detention of her fiancé, Shane Bauer, and their friend Josh Fattal and the events that made her recent release possible in an Oprah Show exclusive Thursday, September 23, 2010. Joined in-studio by her mother, Nora Shourd, Cindy Hickey (Shane’s mother) and Laura Fattal (Josh’s mother), the former prisoner reveals how she’s coping under the strain of being at the center of an intense international story and talks about the continued efforts to reunite her fellow hikers with their families.
