Tags : Americans charged for espionage, espionage
Three Americans Charged in Iran for Espionage
Tehran, Iran (AHN) – Three Americans detained in Tehran since July were charged with spying Monday by Iranian authorities.
The charges come a day after family and friends of the hikers held vigils around the United States marking the 100th day of their incarceration, and two weeks after a U.S. scholar was sentenced to prison by Iran despite repeated calls from Washington for his release.
Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were charged with espionage by Tehran Prosecutor-General Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi, according to state sponsored Press TV.
The Americans were taken into custody on July 31 while hiking in the northern province of Kurdistan in Iraq. Family and friends say they “made a regrettable mistake and got lost” during the trip, and inadvertently crossed the border.
The three are all graduates of the University of California at Berkeley, and Bauer is a freelance journalist who is fluent in Arabic. The State Department has been critical of Tehran for detaining the hikers without charges, and has repeatedly urged the Islamic republic to “live up to its obligations under the Vienna Convention by granting consular access and releasing these three young Americans without further delay.”
The State Department has also called for the release of other Americans, such as Reza Taghavi, a 71-year-old Iranian-American who has been detained without charges since May 2008, and Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who has been missing in Iran since March 2007.
Last month, the department joined human rights groups in denouncing the conviction and sentence of Kian Tajbaksh, a renowned Iranian-American scholar and Columbia University professor who was arrested in July.
The United States has no embassy in Iran, but is in negotiations about the nation’s nuclear enrichment program. It is pursuing a “meaningful” diplomatic engagement on nuclear arms while maintaining its stance that Tehran is a state sponsor of terrorism, and provides assistance to Hamas, Hizballah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and members of the Taliban.
Swiss diplomats, who represent the United States in Iran, visited the hikers in late September. And last week, the fourth member of the hiking party, Shon Meckfessel, urged Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an open letter to release his friends.
“Had I not had a cold and remained behind at our hotel when my friends hiked to the Ahmed Awa waterfall near your country’s border, I would undoubtedly be in detention with them now,” Meckfessel said in the letter published by the Nation. “By continuing to deprive Shane, Sarah and Josh of their liberty, Iran is working against some of the very causes it supports.”
The charges against the hikers come four months after an Iranian-American journalist, Roxana Saberi, was freed by Tehran amid strong international pressure and despite having convicted her of espionage.
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