FAMILY & FRIEND INTERVIEWS
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.’
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.
MOMS PLEAD FOR HIKER SONS’ RELEASE ON @CNN
Sep 15th
“We’re so happy Sarah’s home—but it’s our turn to have our kids back with us.”
~ Laura Fattal, Mother of Hiker Josh Fattal
REPUBLISHED FROM CNN AMERICAN MORNING—amFIX BLOG:
Posted: 09:00 AM ET Wednesday, September 15, 2010
(CNN) The mothers of two U.S. men still being held in Iran told CNN they are hopeful their sons will soon be able to join recently released detainee Sarah Shourd and enjoy their freedom too.
“What we really want of course is there release,” Laura Fattal said on CNN’s American Morning. “We’re so happy Sarah’s home – but it’s our turn to have our kids back with us.”
Laura Fattal appeared with Cindy Hicky on Wednesday’s American Morning to appeal to Iran to release their two sons who have been detained for more than a year. They spoke out a day after Sarah Shourd was released from Iran and reunited with her mother in Muscat, Oman after Iranian authorities released her from a Tehran prison where she had been held for 14 months.
The three Americans were detained after they allegedly strayed across an unmarked border into Iran while hiking in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. Iran accused the three of spying, a charge the United States and the hikers have denied.
Shourd, 32, left behind fellow Americans Shane Bauer, 28, who is her fiance, and their friend, Josh Fattal, 28.
Laura Fattal made a plea to Iran and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad toelease the two men to end a situation that she says should have been avoided from the beginning
“Iran knows they have three innocent hikers, one of which they released,” Fattal told CNN.
ABC VIDEO: MOMS PLEAD FOR SONS’ RELEASE FROM IRAN
Sep 15th
REPUBLISHED FROM ABC NEWS—GOOD MORNING AMERICA:
Posted: Wednesday, September 15, 2010
By JIM SCIUTTO, LEE FERRAN and DESIREE ADIB
American Hiker Sarah Shourd to Head Straight to Doctor’s Office
Shourd Was Expected to Get a Medical Exam Today After Being Freed From Iran Prison
American Sarah Shourd is feeling “strong and healthy,” according to a source close to the hiker’s family.
After almost 14 months of mostly solitary confinement in Iran on charges of espionage, Shourd was released Tuesday on $500,000 bail partially because of medical concerns, Iranian officials said. She reportedly is suffering from a serious gynecological condition and found a lump in her breast.
Shourd was scheduled to visit a doctor today for a medical examination on her first day of freedom from an Iranian prison, sources familiar with the situation told ABC News.
Swiss diplomats who represent U.S. interests in Iran warned Shourd’s family last May that the 32-year-old woman was suffering from depression.
Public discussion of her release began on Sept. 9 after a lawyer for Shourd claimed he “warned” Iranian officials that her health was deteriating.
“I gave a letter to Tehran investigators, and I warned [them] about Sarah’s situation, and that her health is very weak. They can hold them for up to a year for the investigation, but not more than a year if they haven’t been given a proper trial,” attorney Masoud Shafie told ABC News through a translator last week.
Earlier this month, Shourd’s mother, along with the mothers of two other American hikers still currently detained in Iran, pleaded Iranian officials to release the hikers, saying she were “gravely concerned” for Shourd’s health.
As Shourd receives medical attention today, the mothers of the other two captives made an impassioned plea directly to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to free their sons.
“Josh and Shane are still detained in Iran, as you well know,” Laura Fattal said on “Good Morning America” of her son Josh Fattal and his friend, Shane Bauer, directly addressing Ahmadinejad. “We thank you for bringing Sarah home, but now it is time [to] bring Josh and Shane home. We urge you … to show the same compassion you had for Sarah to bring Josh and Shane home.”
“I was very happy for Sarah and her mom,” Cindy Hicky, Bauer’s mother, said. “But very sad that Shane wouldn’t be coming with her. … How hard it must have been for them to separate.”
Sarah Shourd’s Fiance Remains in Iranian Prison
Bauer and Shourd became engaged while they were in captivity and broke the news to their parents in May during the only meeting the mothers and prisoners have had since their July 2009 arrests. They were captured while hiking near the relatively unmarked Iran-Iraq border after allegedly crossing into Iran. They have been accused of espionage.
Upon release, Shourd said she would do everything she could to secure her fiance’s and friend’s release.
“All of my efforts, starting today, are going to go into helping procure the same freedom for my fiance Shane Bauer and my friend Josh Fattal because I can’t enjoy my freedom without them,” she said Tuesday. “They should be standing here with me.”
When she was released, Shourd thanked officials in Iran and singled out Ahmadinejad for the “humanitarian gesture.” Fattal and Hicky also thanked Ahmadinejad for what they called his intervention in Shourd’s case, and agreed with a State Department challenge for him to bring the two captives with him when Ahmadinejad comes to the United States for an upcoming United Nations presentation.
“We’re always hopeful. … I hope he really takes that to heart,” Hicky said.
“It’s their turn now,” Fattal said.
The hikers’ mothers offered a similar challenge for Ahmadinejad to bring home all three hikers before his last appearance at the U.N. in May. Then, Ahmadinejad said he had “no influence” over the judicial process.
“We have laws. There’s a due process of law that is being observed,” Ahmadinejad told “GMA’s” George Stephanopoulos May 4. “The judicial system in Iran is independent of political influence. It’s under the influence of judicial laws.”
President Obama Asks Iran to Release Two More Hikers
President Obama said Tuesday he was “very pleased” by Shourd’s release and called for the release of the other two hikers in a statement, saying they “have committed no crime.”
“We remain hopeful that Iran will demonstrate renewed compassion by ensuring the return of Shane, Josh and all the other missing or detained Americans in Iran,” Obama said.
The State Department said that the willingness to release Shourd proved Iran’s ability to “resolve” all the hikers’ cases.
Iranian officials, including Ahmadinejad, had announced last week that Shourd would be released Sept. 11.
Officials in Iran’s judiciary canceled Shourd’s release Friday, but reversed the decision Sunday on the condition that her family post $500,000 bail, according to an Iranian prosecutor who spoke to Iran’s IRNA news agency.
A “bank guarantee” for the bail had been given, an attorney for the hikers, Masoud Shafie, told ABC News Tuesday.
“The case inspector informed the Tehran prosecutor of a bank guarantee concerning the posting of bail and after the prosecutor’s agreement, he issued the order for her freedom,” the prosecutor’s website said Tuesday, according to PressTV Iran.
The report did not say who was responsible for the guarantee, but two U.S. officials said Iran had received “assurances” from the country of Oman concerning the bail money.
A senior U.S. official familiar with the negotiations said Monday that the U.S. government would not be contributing any cash for Shourd’s release.
ABC News’ Jason Stine, Kirit Radia, Sabrina Parise, Thea Trachtenberg, Kevin Dolak, Jessica Hopper and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures
LETTER TO SARAH FROM A FRIEND: #1YR TOO LONG
Aug 5th
LETTER TO SARAH, WRITTEN ON 30 JULY 2010:
I wrote the following letter to Sarah late Friday night before the next day’s action—I’d like to send it to her. For now, I’m sharing it here.
~ J. Heyward
Dear Sarah,
First…I miss you so incredibly. I’m pretty sure an hour doesn’t pass in any given day when I’m not thinking of you and Shane and feeling the very complete frustration of this unlikely entanglement, this unjust punishment you’re receiving for the truly nefarious deeds of the US you were trying to counter. It is unconscionable and becomes more outrageous each day.
Over the past year, I’ve imagined—many times—a conversation with you once you’re released from that cage. I’m often transported back to that last place where we sat together, at the top of the stairs at my house in San Francisco, when you told me you were going to Syria to live with Shane for a year, maybe more.
Sarah & her Mother Nora Hug for the First Time in Over a Year
But now, while so many of my visual memories of you are being threatened to be replaced with pictures that are recycling through the daily press, I can feel your presence as much as I ever did in person. And it is a strong, unique and unmistakable presence. It feels like commitment, honesty, perseverance, justice. This is very personal to us and political to them…politicians…and this is nothing we could’ve ever been prepared for. Your spirit and Shane’s is with me often and it is clear why we are friends and comrades; the justice we seek is very powerful, universal, transformational.
I was afraid that night you told me you were going to Syria…not afraid for your safety but afraid that I would never get to spend more time with you and talk with you more, as I suppose you had intended by inviting me to the Radical Reading Group before. And actually, there were so many invitations you extended to me that I didn’t return. You can’t imagine how regretful I am of this now. There is nothing I wouldn’t give to be sitting with you now, even in silence.
I think that you may know, I have a solitary life even in relation to my work. There’s no particular reason for this other than that I am incredibly scared and sad to know of all of the terrible things that happen in the world. Sometimes I just want to cry—actually sob and sometimes scream—until I find that rooted place in me that can move forward with confidence to fight alongside others who appear to already have the resolve and peace and vision that I have yet to earn. This is why I didn’t seem to fit into the reading group—even though you picked good books: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Regulating the Poor, End of Capitalism. I didn’t want to read any more theory. I wanted to get out and talk with people, talk about what was going on around us and do something about it. And so did you, I know. It’s just that somehow you manage to squeeze all of it in. I’m still catching up, can only do things one at a time.
Sarah on a Train, Shortly Before her Detention in Iran
Now you’ve often entered that solitary space where I am accustomed to stowing myself away as I try to imagine what we’re going to do to end these wars, to turn this colonialist nightmare around. So really, I think I’ve spent more time with you (however remotely) in the past year than in the past seven or eight years because I know that’s what you were doing in Syria, ending the isolation—bridging a cultural gap and providing solidarity like so many people have throughout history when the US has waged war on entire regions and millions of people. I didn’t know that when you left but I know it now.
It will be amazing if you receive this letter. Can you write back? How will I know. How can you know how much people are thinking of you? Maybe you do know somehow.
Please rest if you can, knowing that there are many of us working day and night to gain your freedom. I think you, Shane and Josh have more than 17 thousand supporters online who are following case, rooting for you. And there are literally hundreds of people who are connected to friends of yours who know your vision and purpose and are telling a true narrative of your indomitable, kind spirit. You will meet all of them soon.
A new article came out today in the Christian Science Monitor that is the best one yet, about your commitment to ending US-Israeli war and aggression and your connection, same purpose and direction as Tristan Anderson and Rachel Corrie. Shon has been working really hard to get these facts out there, and it looks like some US press is finally starting to cover your story from this perspective. We’re really trying to make sure that your work in Syria and Shane’s purpose in Iraq is supported in all of our actions and conversations.
Tomorrow is the big day. One year. Please hold on, Sarah. We still have a long way to go in life together.
Miss you so much.
Love to you, Shane and Josh.
Heyward
DEAREST DAUGHTER: #1YR & 3 DAYS, BY @TRENORA
Aug 4th
My Sweet Daughter:
Sarah & Nora, Together in Iran
As I take up my pen to write you today, I am overcome with strong feelings of love for you. Since you have been arrested this intense love I feel has grown stronger, even more intense and all consuming. On days like this I feel like I have been split in two and the two parts cannot be put together until you are home.
I struggle with the right words to tell you; I struggle with the way to best say it to you and wish I could be more articulate, my words could say more. words cannot always say more, they cannot say everything and I am left without means to tell you. I could tell you in an embrace, I could tell you with my eyes but this I cannot do. So I try in the clumsiness of words to tell you what my heart is crying out to say. You are to me such a woman of courage, such a woman of strength.
I know you look at your captors square in the face and are not bowed. I know you feel the courage of your years standing up for the injustices of people everywhere. Right now I feel a part of a circle fo women everywhere: mothers, daughters, grandmothers, sisters, wives whose hearts break for those they love; who would do anything humanly possible to end their sadness, to ease their suffering.
I know that as you face each day alone in your cell not knowing when it will end, not knowing the world’s thoughts, you must use that store of courage and strength and give some back to yourself for renewal. my hope is that you can call on all your memories of good times spent and always know that love is pouring into your cell from the millions who now know you and care greatly about you.
All my love and more, Mom
#USHIKER SARAH’S LAST EMAIL TO HER MOTHER: @TRENORA
Aug 3rd
On July 30th 2009, Sarah Shourd, wrote the following email to her mother Nora in the US:
Hello Sweetness,
So, we’re traveling.
Actually, we’re in N.Iraq!
It’s totally safe.
The Kurds in this area have been pro-American since 1991. No single American has ever been hurt on Kurdish territory.
So, don’t worry.
Tonight we’re going camping.
I love you.
My article is going to be published on the 7th!!!
There were fireworks in the streets of Solemeniya last night, they just had their first democratic elections.
Love Sarah
The following day she was abducted by Iranian authorities and has remained in solitary confinement in Tehran’s notorius Evin prison, ever since.
Sarah in Iran
Sarah Shourd has been held in solitary confinement in Iran for over a year now.
This film , by a Safe World for Women, starts with the last words she wrote to her mother the day before she was kidnapped with her fiance Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal.
Then, in an interview with Chris Crowstaff from a UK based women’s rights NGO, Sarah’s mother talks about the conditions in which Sarah is being held and how Sarah will be coping.
MUSIC:
“Carry Me Home” by Shannon Smy & Seize the Day
SISTER OF IMPRISONED HIKER SHANE BAUER HOLDS VIGIL IN BOULDER, CO
Aug 1st
REPUBLISHED FROM COLORADO DAILY:
Hikers have been detained in Iran for one year
By Joe Rubino, Camera Staff Writer
At 1:33 p.m. Saturday, 24-year-old Boulder resident Shannon Bauer stood in front of the Boulder County Courthouse, amid Pearl Street Mall shoppers and tourists on a hot summer day.
At that very minute, exactly one year ago, Bauer and her family first received word that her older brother, Shane Bauer, his girlfriend, Sarah Shourd, and their friend, Josh Fattal, had been captured by the Iranian government while hiking along an unmarked stretch of the Iraq-Iran border. The three remain captives in Iran to this day.
The Boulder “Free the Hikers” vigil, held Saturday afternoon on the Pearl Street Mall, was one of more than 15 events worldwide—some as far away as New Delhi, India—commemorating what organizers call one year of unjust detention for the three American citizens.
Bauer, who was helped by a rotating group of 10 to 15 friends and volunteers Saturday, held the vigil to continue spreading awareness of her brother’s plight and to apply pressure to both the Iranian and United States governments to release her brother, Stroud and Fattal.
“I have a goal of at least one person finding out about it and going on the Web site and showing how much they care,” Bauer said of Saturday’s vigil. “The ultimate goal every day is that they come home.”
A table set up for the vigil featured photos of the three captives. Volunteers sold T-shirts and buttons and accepted donations to support the “Free the Hikers” cause. The main goal, however, was to gather signatures on a petition asking the Iranian government to release the hikers. More than 60 signatures had been collected by 2 p.m. Saturday
“I had a couple of people telling me signing something wasn’t going to do anything,” said Sarah Kubley, a neighbor and friend of Bauer’s who helped out Saturday. “That’s just a good excuse to do nothing.”
Bauer and several others read prepared speeches at the vigil. Barbara Petersen, of Littleton, studied abroad with Fattal in South Africa in 2009. She was too emotional to finish her speech, so her father, Craig, read most of it.
Bauer hasn’t spoken to her brother since his arrest. She found out about his engagement to Shourd after their mother briefly visited him in his Tehran prison cell in March.
“Everything kind of changed,” said Bauer’s partner, Natalie Seuske. “We can’t leave cell phone reception because we’re always waiting for that call. Shannon has had health issues related to the stress.”
Despite the emotional distress it has caused her, Bauer takes solace in the community response.
“This situation generally is not something many people go through,” she said. “So to have this type of support is one of the main things getting us through this. People who don’t even know them want to see them come home.”
Melissa Parker, a resident of Union, Ky., signed the “Free the Hikers” petition. She was vacationing in Boulder with her family.
“It’s just really sad to think there are people over there that our government can’t help release,” she said. “We just keep them in our prayers.”
CHECKOUT MORE PHOTOS FROM THE BOULDER EVENT:
AN OUTRAGEOUS INJUSTICE & CALL TO ACTION
Jul 13th
REPUBLISHED FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST:
Posted: July 12, 2010 03:42 PM
By Alex Fattal
Today is day 346. Iran, enough is enough! Making my brother Josh and his two friends Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd suffer in Evin Prison for nearly a year is wrong and needs to end.
To underscore this point, we are calling on friends, supporters and everyone who is outraged that my brother and friends remain imprisoned for no legitimate reason to protest by organizing events throughout the US and the world for a weekend of action starting on July 30th.
Update on the Hikers’ Case
The last public comment from an Iranian official about the hikers case was on June 11 by Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior member of the judiciary and head of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights. Below are a few quotes from that statement:
“The issue of detainees should be pursued on the humanitarian level and not be muddled with other issues.”
“I think [a trial] should not be very far from now.”
Javad Larijani made similar statements on February 15th, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mottaki made similar statements in early January and President Ahmadinejad made similar statements last September. We continue to wait for some sign that their case is indeed coming to a conclusion and that these promises are not totally empty.
Josh, Shane and Sarah have not been able to see their lawyer, Masoud Shafii, and have had no contact with the outside world since their mothers’ visit in late May, a visit that was inexplicably cut from seven days to two (and this one hour before they departed for Tehran and after waiting for over five months for one-week visas).
Clearly the excuse of an ongoing “investigation” and the repeated reassurance that their case is being treated within a legal framework is an excuse for the fact that Iran is treating my brother and his friends as bargaining chips. If Iran had the thinnest thread of evidence it surely would have publicized it extensively by now. When the mothers were in Iran, Josh, Shane and Sarah told them that they hadn’t been interrogated since early December, when Josh and Shane were finally placed in the same cell and the conditions of their detention eased a bit. However, Sarah still sits in solitary confinement and is only able to see Shane and Josh for brief periods. This extreme isolation risks inflicting lasting damage to her emotional and psychological well being. Her medical records have not been made available to her family, raising fears that the medical tests contain troubling information about her gynecological condition.
All of this for what? The Nation magazine recently reported that my brother and friends were not even on Iranian territory when they were detained. While this report is unsubstantiated, it highlights the fact that the charge of illegal entry still needs to be proven in a free and fair court of law.
From the hikers’ lawyer, Masoud Shafii, I understand that according to Iranian law the investigation period needs to end within four months; obviously, that has not happened. Mr. Shafii informed our families that another Iranian law stipulates that prisoners who have spent the minimum sentence in jail without seeing a judge must be freed immediately. The minimum jail sentence for illegal entry is one year, although the standard punishment is a $50-$300 fine. If Josh, Shane and Sarah are held beyond a year without any semblance of justice their detention will reach a new level of illegality, a new level of immorality, a new level of inhumanity.
A year ago, as I skipped stones into the Baltic Sea with my brother (he was visiting me in Sweden) he shared with me his plans for the future. He was leaning toward going on to graduate studies, not going on to languish in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison.
Josh, Shane and Sarah are talented and caring individuals who have worked to improve our world by advocating for social and environmental justice. They need to get back to their lives, get back to bringing joy to our families and their friends, get back to their noble pursuits.
So far Iranian authorities have been deaf to humanitarian appeals from the likes of Desmond Tutu, Ela Gandhi, Mairead Maguire, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Noam Chomsky and many others. They need to hear from all of us together. Join the mobilization to tell Iran that enough is enough on the one-year anniversary of the hikers’ detention. Flagrantly playing politics with the lives of innocents is unacceptable. Iran, let them go now!
How You Can Take Action:
- Join the hikers’ mothers, human rights activists, friends and supporters in a protest outside of the Iranian Mission to the United Nations (40th St. and Third Ave.) in New York on July 30 between 12:30 and 2pm
- Attend a protest event on July 31 that is already being planned in Philadelphia, PA; San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Duluth, MN, Washington, DC; Boulder, CO; Lunenburg, MA; Birmingham, AL; Elk Grove, CA; Seattle, WA; Cottage Grove, OR; Frankfurt, Germany; Paris, France; Marbella, Spain; New Delhi, India; Vancouver Island, Canada; Vancouver, Canada; Toronto, Canada
- Organize a protest event wherever you are and contact Farah Mawani to let us know about it: farah@freethehikers.org
- Wear a white ribbon or other Free the Hikers gear to spread the word that their unjust and illegal detention needs to end
- Join our Facebook group and invite all of your friends to do the same
- Write to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other Iranian officials, calling for the hikers’ release
IRANIAN SCIENTIST’S APPEARANCE SPARKS HOPES FOR #USHIKERS’ RELEASE
Jul 13th
The incredible story of a missing Iranian scientist dramatically showing up at the Pakistani embassy in Washington has sparked speculation over whether the scientist’s appearance could be linked to a possible swap deal for three US hikers detained in Iran in 2009.
On Tuesday, Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri surfaced at the Iranian interests section of the Pakistani embassy in Washington, apparently requesting to be returned home and claiming he was abducted by US agents.
Amiri disappeared while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June 2009. Iran has long maintained that he was abducted and flown to the US by CIA agents. The Iranian State TV Web site reported that Amiri, in a phone call from Washington, had claimed to have been under psychological pressure in recent months.
But in an interview with FRANCE 24, a US State Department official, who declined to be named, maintained that “Amiri has been in the US of his own free will and he is leaving of his own free will”. She declined to provide further details of his stay in the US or the manner in which he would leave.
The claims and counterclaims, along with three video clips of a man purporting to be Amiri but offering contradictory narratives, put many spy thrillers to shame. As analysts scramble to get to the truth of the murky story, a number of likely explanations have been circulating in international policy circles, including suggestions that Amiri – if indeed he was in US custody – might be swapped for three US hikers who have been held in Tehran since July 2009.
Recent Picture of Shane, Sarah & Josh
The three hikers – Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal – were detained on July 31, 2009 when they were hiking in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, according to their families and friends. Initial reports said the three had accidentally wandered into Iranian territory in the mountainous area along the Iran-Iraq border.
But in a report in the US weekly The Nation, local villagers said the hikers were detained on the Iraqi side of the border.
While Iranian officials have made references to the possibility of trying them for espionage, no official charges have been announced.
‘We’re always hoping’
For Nora Shourd, mother of 31-year-old Sarah Shourd, one of the three captured hikers, the news of Amiri’s mysterious appearance in Washington has sparked hopes that her daughter and her two friends could be released.
Sarah with her mother, Nora during their recent visit
“We’re always hoping,” said Shourd in a phone interview with FRANCE 24 from London, where she is currently on a European tour to raise awareness of her daughter’s plight. “It’s difficult for the families [of the abducted hikers]. We always hope that some development will tip it over and our children will be released. So, I’m always hoping.”
But Shourd maintained that she was not aware of any deal, negotiations or links between the Amiri case and the three hikers.
“This story is so strange, there are so many versions of the story, you don’t know what to believe,” said Shourd. “But no, we haven’t heard anything from any US officials. So, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Speaking to FRANCE 24 on Tuesday, a US State Department official said the US government has repeatedly called, and continues to call, for the hikers’ release. But she denied reports of any negotiations concerning their release. “Regarding any reports of their release, I would refer you to the Iranian authorities,” she said.
In brief remarks to reporters in Washington about the incident on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Amiri was free to leave the US and return home.
“These are decisions that are his alone to make,” Clinton said. “In contrast, Iran continues to hold three young Americans against their will, and we reiterate our request that they be released and allowed to return to their families on a humanitarian basis.”
Written By Leela JACINTO the 13/07/2010 – 19:45
Video by: Ed O’KEEFE
ORIGINAL FACEBOOK POST:
France24 International News: “Mother of Hiker Detained in Iran Hopes for Her Release” #SSJ #FREEtheHikers #SolitarySarah
Mother of hiker detained in Iran hopes for her release
www.france24.com
The incredible story of a missing Iranian scientist dramatically showing up at the Pakistani embassy in Washington has sparked speculation over whether the scientist’s appearance could be linked to a possible swap deal for three US hikers detained in Iran in 2009.
