The three American hikers charged with espionage in Iran went on trial behind closed doors on Sunday in Tehran’s Revolution Court. State-run Press TV carried a short report saying the trial began at 10:00 a.m., local time, and that all three submitted a plea of not guilty.
According to the report, “Tehran Prosecutor’s office says it has ‘compelling evidence’ that three were cooperating with US intelligence agencies.”
The headline of the news report read somewhat vaguely, “Iran begins trial of three US spies.”
There was no indication in the report that an outcome had been reached or when a next court date might be held.
Two of the accused, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 28, have been in custody in Iran since the three were arrested on July 31, 2009 for crossing into Iran from its border with Iraq. The friends say they were hiking near a tourist area in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Last September, Sarah Shourd, Bauer’s fiancée, was released on $500,000 bail for medical reasons after spending 410 days in solitary confinement. Shourd was summoned back to Iran to stand trial with the two men but did not go.
The lawyer representing the two men, Masoud Shafii, says he was not permitted to visit his clients the day before the trial, according to a website set up by friends and family, freethehikers.org.
On Jan. 30, an Iranian-Dutch woman was hung in Iran on charges of drug trafficking which Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal called a “shameful act by a barbaric regime,” according to Dutch media.
The day before Zahra Bahrami’s execution, Rosenthal had been informed by Iran’s ambassador that the trial had not yet concluded, reported Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. After hearing of the execution, the Netherlands immediately froze all diplomatic relations with Iran.
According to the report, “Tehran Prosecutor’s office says it has ‘compelling evidence’ that three were cooperating with US intelligence agencies.”
The headline of the news report read somewhat vaguely, “Iran begins trial of three US spies.”
There was no indication in the report that an outcome had been reached or when a next court date might be held.
Two of the accused, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 28, have been in custody in Iran since the three were arrested on July 31, 2009 for crossing into Iran from its border with Iraq. The friends say they were hiking near a tourist area in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Last September, Sarah Shourd, Bauer’s fiancée, was released on $500,000 bail for medical reasons after spending 410 days in solitary confinement. Shourd was summoned back to Iran to stand trial with the two men but did not go.
The lawyer representing the two men, Masoud Shafii, says he was not permitted to visit his clients the day before the trial, according to a website set up by friends and family, freethehikers.org.
On Jan. 30, an Iranian-Dutch woman was hung in Iran on charges of drug trafficking which Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal called a “shameful act by a barbaric regime,” according to Dutch media.
The day before Zahra Bahrami’s execution, Rosenthal had been informed by Iran’s ambassador that the trial had not yet concluded, reported Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. After hearing of the execution, the Netherlands immediately froze all diplomatic relations with Iran.
The International Campaign For Human Rights in Iran says that the drug charges were trumped up only after Bahrami was first arrested during the mass anti-government street protests in Iran in 2009.
President Barack Obama, as well as United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and Nobel Peace Prize winners Rev. Desmond Tutu and Mairead Maguire have all appealed to the Iraq government to release the hikers.
With reporting by Jasper Fakkert.
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