Iran to free US hikers jailed for spying

Iran has moved to reduce tensions with the international community by pledging to release two Americans held in the country and offering fresh nuclear talks ahead of President Ahmadinejad's visit to the United Nations in New York next week.

The two Americans sentenced to eight years in jail for espionage and illegally crossing the border are to be released on bail of $500,000 (£316,000), their lawyer said on Tuesday.

News of the deal came after Ahmadinejad revealed in separate interviews with two US media organisations that Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal would be allowed to return home in the next few days.

In reaction to Iran's pledge, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said: "We are encouraged by what the Iranian government has said.

"We obviously hope that we will see a positive outcome from what appears to be a decision by the government."

The pair, both now 29, were arrested by Iranian security officials in July 2009 along with a friend, Sarah Shourd, 33, after walking across an unmarked border between Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan. Shourd who became engaged to Bauer while in jail, was released last September on health grounds and for the same bail sum.

"The families of these two Americans and the Swiss embassy which hosts the US interests section in Tehran have been informed of this issue and Bauer and Fattal can leave Iran similar to Sarah Shourd," the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Iran's judiciary has a history of asking for large amounts of money as bail. For prisoners who leave Iran after securing the bail, it means buying freedom. Last December, Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan who was jailed for almost 20 years, was temporarily released on bail of $1.5m.

Ahmadinejad appears to be crediting himself for their expected release ahead of his attendance at the UN general assembly meeting this month.

The Washington Post quoted him as saying Bauer and Fattal had been granted a "unilateral pardon".

"I am helping to arrange for their release in a couple of days so they will be able to return home," he told the paper in an interview in Tehran. "This is of course going to be a unilateral humanitarian gesture."

An Iranian court in August sentenced the two men each to three years for illegally entering Iran and a further five years for spying for US intelligence services. Their lawyer lodged an appeal against the sentences and Amnesty International said their conviction made a "mockery of justice".

The court's verdict was at odds with earlier comments made by Iranian foreign ministry officials who said before the trial that the pair would be freed. The contrast highlighted a growing rift between Iran's judiciary, which is close to the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Ahmadinejad's government.

It is not clear why Iran has finally decided to grant them apparent clemency, but international pressure and Iran's isolation in the region may have been factors. A deal might have been struck for the lifting of a travel ban on Fereidoun Abbasi-Davani, the head of Iran's atomic energy agency.

The offer to release the Americans comes two days after Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said Iran was ready to resume nuclear talks with the EU..

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, said on Monday he was "increasingly concerned" over Iran's nuclear activities, which the west worries might have military dimensions. Iran says it wants nuclear energy for producing electricity.

Source: The Guardian