Iran release of ‘spies’ delayed

THE lawyer for two US men convicted of spying in Iran said yesterday their release could be delayed until tomorrow as the judge in the case was on holiday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a US television interviewer last week that Shane Bauer, 28, and Josh Fattal, 29, would be freed in coming days in a humanitarian gesture ahead of his trip to the UN in New York. The men were arrested on the border with Iraq in 2009 and said they were hiking.