Iran to release jailed US hikers

Two Americans jailed as spies in Iran will be released today after a US$1m bail-for-freedom deal was approved by the courts clearing the way for the release of the men after more than two years in custody.

The Iranian attorney for the two, Masoud Shafiei, said he planned to go to Tehran’s Evin prison to begin the procedure for the release of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal.

They were arrested along the Iran-Iraq border in July 2009 and sentenced last month to eight years each in prison. A third American in the group, Sarah Shourd, was freed last year on bail.

Mr Shafiei said he would meet the two Americans at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

They will then be handed over to the Swiss diplomats who represent American interests in Iran because the US has no diplomatic relations with Iran.

“Now we can say they are finally free,” the lawyer told said. “They can go to the US the way (their friend) Sarah did.”

The case of Bauer and Fattal, who were convicted of spying for the United States, has deepened the mistrust between Washington and Tehran.

Mr Shafiei said he had been trying to post the bail but that there were some last-minute problems in the bank. He did not say what the source of the money was.

“There was a minor problem with bail money and its payment,” Mr Shafiei said. “I hope it will be done today.”

The release of the pair will likely follow the pattern of that of Shourd, who was set free last September after a 500,000 US dollars bail was posted. She was then flown on a private plane to the Omani capital, Muscat.

The three Americans – friends from their days at the University of California at Berkeley – have maintained their innocence and denied the charges.

Their families say they were just hiking in northern Iraq’s scenic and relatively peaceful Kurdish region when they may have accidentally strayed over the unmarked border with Iran.