American Sarah Shourd rested yesterday in Oman’s capital on her first full day of freedom following a surprise bail deal with Iran that secured her release after more than 13 months in custody.
US and Omani officials said it was unclear how long Shourd would stay in Oman with her mother Nora, or whether she will seek immediate medical attention.
The 32-year-old woman was freed on Tuesday after Oman — a key ally of both Iran and the West — mediated a deal for US$500,000 bail that satisfied Iranian authorities and apparently did not violate US economic sanctions.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity yesterday because they were not authorized to brief the media. Details of the bail payment have not been disclosed.
Shourd thanked Oman for its role after arriving at a special royal airport aboard a jet chartered by the sultanate. She has stayed out of the public eye since.
Oman shares the strategic Strait of Hormuz with Iran at the mouth of the Gulf. Nearly 40 percent of the world’s oil passes through the narrow channel. Oman also maintains close US ties, including arms purchases, and is a regular stop for high-level Pentagon officials.
Shourd and two other Americans — her fiance Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal — were detained along Iran’s border with Iraq in July last year and later accused of spying. The two men remain in a Tehran prison under indictment on espionage-related charges and could face trial — with proceedings for Shourd in absentia.
Their families say they were innocent hikers in the scenic mountains of Iraq’s Kurdish region and if they did stray across the border into Iran, they did so unwittingly.
“I’m grateful and I’m very humbled by this moment,” Shourd said before boarding the plane in Tehran for the two-hour flight to Oman.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he welcomed Shourd’s release and “the flexibility of Iranian government.”
However, he also called for the release of the “remaining two American hikers so that they could join their families as soon as possible.”
US President Barack Obama and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton both thanked Oman for its assistance.
Oman “in recent days and weeks became a key interlocutor to help us work this case with the Iranian government,” US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said on Tuesday. “And we are very grateful to the role that Oman has played.”
He could not say whether any money had changed hands in winning Shourd’s release, but noted that “arrangements were made that satisfied Iranian requirements under their judicial system.”
At the same time, Crowley said the US government had no information to suggest any US or international sanctions on Iran had been violated.
Shourd smiled and looked relaxed during her whirlwind departure from prison to the arms of her mother in Oman. However, the full picture of her health has not been made public. Her mother says she has serious medical problems, including a breast lump and precancerous cervical cells.
The plans for her release on health grounds touched off days of mixed signals in Iran and exposed deep political rifts between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s allies and the powerful judiciary, which demanded the high bail.
Some analysts say Shourd’s release could have been timed to deflect the international outcry over a stoning sentence for a woman convicted of adultery and the continued crackdown on opposition groups — which led two Iranian ambassadors in Europe to quit this week and seek asylum.
Shourd’s mother, Nora, said she has hoped and prayed for this moment for 410 days.
“Sarah has had a long and difficult detainment and I am going to make sure that she now gets the care and attention she needs and the time and space to recover,” she said. “I can only imagine how bittersweet her freedom must be for her, leaving Shane and Josh behind.”
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