Freed hikers Fattal and Bauer rejoice with families

Racing to meet the outstretched arms of their cheering families on the tarmac in Oman's capital, American hikers Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer alighted from the plane that had whisked them out of Iran, and reveled finally at the room to romp.

Bauer spun in the arms of his fiancee, Sarah Shourd, who had been set free in similar fashion a year ago. Fattal, of Elkins Park, gripped his brother, Alex, in an endless bear hug.

For 26 months, Fattal and Bauer, both 29, were imprisoned in Iran, which last month convicted them of espionage - charges that they and supporters all the way up to President Obama had denied - and imposed eight-year sentences. Their continued detention had further inflamed tensions between the United States and the Islamic Republic.

A flurry of diplomatic activity over the last week, principally by Omani, Iraqi, and Swiss go-betweens, produced their freedom Wednesday after $1 million was paid anonymously, through Omani mediation, in what Iran called "bail" to free the pair.

"Today can only be described as the best day of our lives," the men's families said in a statement. "The joy and relief we feel . . . knows no bounds."

At a brief news conference at the Muscat airport, Fattal and Bauer looked clean but tired.

"We are so happy we are free, and so relieved we are free," Fattal said. "Our deepest gratitude goes toward his majesty, Sultan Qaboos of Oman, for obtaining our release."

"Two years in prison is too long," said Bauer, who is from Minnesota, "and we sincerely hope for the freedom of other political prisoners and other unjustly imprisoned people in America and Iran."

They took no questions. Omani authorities said they would probably spend at least one day in the Persian Gulf nation before returning to the United States.

Obama, speaking to reporters at the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York, said he was "thrilled for the moms" - Laura Fattal and Bauer's mother, Cindy Hickey - who had visited him in the Oval Office to plead for his help. The mothers last saw their sons during a brief visit the women were allowed in Tehran in May 2010.

"The tireless advocacy of their families over these two years has won my admiration, and is now coming to an end with Josh and Shane back in their arms," the president said in an earlier White House statement.

Oman's foreign ministry, in a statement, offered "sincere thanks and appreciation" to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Iran's government, and expressed hope "that this humanitarian gesture be followed by other positive initiatives" to improve Iranian-U.S. relations.

The long ordeal had aggravated tensions over the Islamic Republic's nuclear power program, which the United States contends is a cover for developing nuclear weapons. The two countries do not have direct diplomatic relations.

Fattal and Bauer will need time to unwind in the protective setting of their families, said Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in Washington, who was herself imprisoned in Iran on suspicion of espionage in 2007 before being released 100 days later.

"No matter how strong you are and how secure you feel, once you get back at home these memories come back, haunting you," she said in an interview. "Someone rings the bell or bangs the door and you jump.. . .

"You don't know what [their jailers] told them in the last minute [before release]: 'We'll be after you. We'll bring you back.' They have to sort out their freedom in peace and quiet. They also need to know what took place in their absence."

Esfandiari said that when she was freed, a friend's daughter "brought me three DVDs with every news article, every intervention.. . . It was an eye-opener. These young men probably don't know what happened in their absence, and when they find out it will give them a sense of strength and security that they were not forgotten."

Earlier Wednesday, while awaiting confirmation that Fattal was free, Philadelphia-area supporters began cautiously to exhale.

"Relieved. The word is relieved," said Joey Boxman, who attended Myers Elementary School and Cheltenham High School with Fattal, graduating together in 2000.

Fattal, Bauer, and Shourd, of California, friends from their days at the University of California at Berkeley, say they were on a one-week vacation, hiking in a tourist region of northern Iraqi Kurdistan, when they were arrested by Iranian guards on July 31, 2009. If they crossed Iran's unmarked border, their supporters say, it was accidental.

Shourd, who reportedly was ill in prison, was let go a year ago on what Iran called humanitarian release after an unnamed source paid $500,000 bail mediated by Oman. She and Bauer had become engaged in prison.

Iran has never publicly presented evidence against the hikers. Critics of Iran have likened the bail-for-freedom deal to the payment of ransom for hostages.

The two men were released while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had told American TV interviewers last week that the pair would be released in "a couple of days," was in New York for the U.N. meeting. The delay in their release was attributed to infighting between Ahmadinejad and Iran's ruling clerics.

Participants in the effort to free the hikers, including representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said they hoped the resolution of the case would improve U.S.-Iranian relations and lead America to reciprocate.

"We hope our government will now address the issue of Iranian citizens detained in the United States with the same spirit of compassion that resulted in the release" of Fattal and Bauer, said CAIR executive director Nihad Awad.

The local chapter of Free the Hikers - an advocacy group their families started - has held numerous candlelight vigils and fund-raisers in Philadelphia and across the suburbs in the last two years.

"Every time we talk, we say, 'Next time we want to be planning the coming-home party,' " said Boxman.

In his last contact with Laura Fattal about a week ago, said Boxman, she expressed the hope they would have "open house for a month . . . to thank everyone who has been involved and to let them see Josh for themselves."

Former Cheltenham High School principal Joseph Rodgers choked up during a telephone interview earlier Wednesday as he described the courage of the mothers' campaign to free their sons.

"In a world where so many things seem unsure," he said, "there was a quality about these two mothers standing up against seemingly the entire world with such grace and dignity."

Rodgers, who retired from the Cheltenham schools in 2004, remembered Josh Fattal as a "very distinct personality" whose "resilience and strength" no doubt helped him during his incarceration.

He recalled Fattal as having "optimism, realism, a tremendous sense of humor, and being a tolerant person."

Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), who represents the part of Montgomery County that includes Elkins Park, said in a statement that the men's "imprisonment was unwarranted and their release is long overdue."

"It gives me goose bumps to know that he's been released," said Irene Baker, a neighbor of the Fattals.

At Cheltenham's school district headquarters, where an exhibit headlined "Free the Hikers" has been on display, receptionist Johnna Geigert took pleasure Wednesday in amending the poster with a marker to read: "FREE-D, 9-21-11," adding a smiley-face emoticon.

"I just had to write that. It felt so good," she said. "Today was great."