The delayed trial of three Americans detained in Iran on spying charges held its first session on Sunday, more than 18 months after their arrest on the unmarked border with Iraq during a hiking trip. The prosecution of Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal began at a time when anti-American rhetoric is running at fever pitch in Iran as it marks the anniversary of its February 11, 1979 Islamic revolution.
"The session is over. We will have another session. No date has been fixed for it but it will be held soon," the Swiss ambassador to Tehran, Livia Leu Agosti, whose mission represents US interests in Iran, told AFP. Earlier on Sunday, Agosti told Iranian state news agency IRNA that she went to the court but was "not allowed" to attend proceedings which were held behind closed doors.
Iran has dismissed repeated pleas from the United States for the release of Bauer and Fattal after it allowed Shourd to return home on bail of around 500,000 dollars last September after more than a year in detention.
Agosti confirmed to IRNA that Shourd was not present at the trial and that her absence "was her personal decision." Shourd, her fiance Bauer with whom she got engaged in an Iranian prison during her detention, and fellow hiker Fattal say they innocently strayed into Iran from across the unmarked border with northern Iraq when they were arrested on July 31, 2009 by Iranian authorities.
Iran has accused them of "spying and illegally entering the country."
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.