Two US men who had been held as spies in Iran for more than two years left their Tehran jail yesterday, accompanied by Omani and Swiss diplomats, who drove them to Tehran international airport.
Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 28, have been in Iranian custody since their arrest on July 31, 2009, on the border with Iraq where they say they were hiking.
They were convicted of espionage and entering Iran illegally and on Aug. 21 they were sentenced to eight years in prison.
“Following the request of their lawyer, their detention order was converted to bail of 5 billion rials [US$400,000 each] and they will be released until the final verdict,” a statement from the judiciary carried by Iranian media said.
Earlier, the lawyer for the hikers, Masoud Shafii, said he had completed the bail arrangements at Evin prison and was told to go outside and wait for the pair to be released.
“Yes, the money for the bail was provided by Oman,” Shafii added.
Oman is a US Gulf ally, which has friendly relations with Iran and paid bail of a similar amount for the release of a third US hiker, Sarah Shourd, last year.
Omani diplomats were seen entering Evin prison yesterday.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, currently in New York to attend the UN General Assembly, reaffirmed in an interview released on Tuesday that his country would release the two hikers despite delays.
“I did say within the next few days and I still say the same thing. And God willing they will be released very soon,” Ahmadinejad told US network ABC, amid concern over the delay in their release since he first announced it last week.
Ahmadinejad told US media last week that the pair would be released imminently, but the judiciary, which is dominated by ultra-conservatives, said later that no decision had yet been taken and that it was studying a bail application from the pair’s lawyer.
However, the release on bail of the two Americans, has already been approved by one judge, and Shafii had been told on Sunday to expect the second judge to return to work on Tuesday.
Bauer and Fattal were arrested along with Shourd, 32, who left Iran in September last year after being granted bail on humanitarian and medical grounds. All three have maintained that they innocently strayed into Iran while hiking in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
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