Mothers of Jailed Americans Lash Out at Iran

(June 17) -- The mothers of three Americans jailed in Iran for nearly a year are demanding their release in a strongly worded statement issued today that accuses Iran of using the prisoners as pawns in a diplomatic battle with Washington.

Until now, the mothers of Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal have refrained from criticizing the Iranian government in an effort not to politicize their children's case. They even thanked Iranian officials profusely for allowing them to visit their kids at a hotel in the capital Tehran last month, after Iran granted them visas on what it called "humanitarian grounds."

But nearly a year after the three Americans strayed into Iran while hiking in neighboring northern Iraq, their mothers are now expressing outrage.

"To continue to detain our children without regard for their legal and human rights reinforces suspicions that they are being held in a cynical attempt by Iran to exert leverage with the United States," their statement said today.

"We're no longer asking, we're demanding," Nora Shourd, of Oakland, Calif., told The Associated Press. "They got their compassionate little propaganda piece out of our visit, and we got nothing out of it. Whatever we have to do at this point to publicly embarrass and put them in a corner, we'll do."

The mothers also called for more consular access to their children, for them to be allowed to phone home more often, and for Shourd to be moved out of solitary confinement.

After meeting with the mothers last month, 31-year-old Shourd told reporters that her treatment behind bars has been "decent" but that "it's really difficult being alone." She's held in a separate cell from Bauer, 27, and Fattal, 28, and sees them only occasionally.

All three captives are graduates of the University of California at Berkeley. They were detained July 31 just inside the Iranian border across from a scenic part of Kurdish territory in neighboring Iraq. Their families say they crossed into Iran by accident, but Iranian officials have accused them of spying.

Bauer and Shourd are a couple who were living in Damascus at the time, and have since become engaged in prison. He is a freelance journalist who was covering Kurdish elections, and she taught English. Fattal went to visit them after traveling overseas on a teaching fellowship, and the three planned the hike as a vacation, according to their families.

Since their capture, they've been held in the notorious Evin Prison in the Iranian capital Tehran, where political prisoners and others reportedly linger for years. An unknown number have died inside the jail.

They haven't been formally charged, but Iranian officials have accused the hikers of having ties to U.S. intelligence agencies -- an idea their families have called absurd. If convicted of espionage in Iran, they could face the death penalty. No trial date has been set.

"Iran has no legitimate reason at this stage not to release them or move forward with a fair trial in which our children can openly answer any allegations against them," their mothers' statement said.

Iran's top human rights official said last week that the Americans would go on trial soon, but their mothers said they've been hearing that promise for months.

"We need to see some movement," Bauer's mother, Cindy Hickey, told the AP.