Hikers to be freed after each pays $500,000 ‘bail’

Word from Iran that a bail-for-freedom deal is in the works seemed to set the stage Tuesday for the imminent release of American hikers Josh Fattal, of Elkins Park, and Shane Bauer, of Minnesota. The pair were arrested in 2009 and sentenced last month to eight years in prison on spy-related charges that they always have denied.

In television interviews ahead of his anticipated arrival at the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told NBC and CNN reporters in Tehran that the hikers, both 29, would go free within "two days," adding "in'shallah" - God willing.

Augmenting expectations, the hikers' lawyer, Masoud Shafii, earlier was quoted by Iran's government-affiliated FARS news service as saying that Iran's appellate court had set the payment of $500,000, each, as the condition on Fattal and Bauer's release. In effect, pay a million bucks, get the two Americans back.

"While we do not have further details at this time," the families said in a joint statement, "we are overjoyed by the positive news reports from Iran. Shane and Josh's freedom means more to us than anything, and it's a huge relief to read that they are going to be released. We're grateful to everyone who has supported us and looking forward to our reunion with Shane and Josh. We hope to say more when they are finally back in our arms."

The statement makes no reference to a possible payment.

The reported arrangement for their release is similar to the terms under which the third hiker, Sarah Shourd, 32, was released and returned to the United States last September after an unidentified benefactor in the Persian Gulf state of Oman mediated the payment of her $500,000 bail.

But there are differences.

Shourd, of California, was reportedly ill and allowed to return to America without trial on what Iran called "humanitarian" grounds. Charged like her companions with border trespass and espionage, her case apparently remains open.

After multiple delays and prolonged detention of more than two years, Fattal and Bauer were convicted last month in a trial at which no evidence of their alleged espionage was publicly presented. They were given three year sentences for entering Iran illegally and five years for spying for the United States.

Their lawyer immediately appealed. It is not clear whether Tuesday's ruling by Iran's "Branch 36 of the revision court" is a response to that appeal.

Although Iran calls the price of their freedom "bail," it has the appearance of a hefty post-conviction fine. Critics of the Islamic Republic see it as a form of ransom for hikers whose incarceration amounted to hostage-taking.

Details of the latest development remain sketchy because the United States does not have direct diplomatic ties with Iran. Shafii reportedly has briefed Swiss Embassy officials in Tehran, who represent U.S. interests.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said U.S. officials were in touch with the Swiss envoys "to get more details from the Iranian authorities."

The pathway for any possible payments was not immediately clear. U.S. sanctions against Iran preclude direct monetary transactions. The state of Oman continues to have close ties with both the U.S. and Iran, but it was not immediately known if it would mediate again as it did in Shourd's case.

Fattal, Bauer and Shourd are friends from their student days at the University of California at Berkeley. They were traveling, working and studying in the Middle East in the summer of 2009 when they decided to take a one-week vacation in a tourist region of northern Iraqi Kurdistan. Shourd, who is Bauer's fiancee, has said the three were trekking near a waterfall close to Iran's border, were summoned forward by a guard, and may have mistakenly wandered across the unmarked frontier.

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