Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire, Noam Chomsky Call for Hikers' Release from Iran

(Nov. 2) -- Nobel Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mairead Maguire, along with MIT professor and renowned activist Noam Chomsky, are adding their voices to the chorus calling for the release of American hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, who are still being held in Iran's notorious Evin prison.

Bauer and Fattal, both 28, were arrested with Sarah Shourd, 32, in July 2009 during a hiking trip along the Iraq-Iran border. Shourd was released on $500,000 bail in September on humanitarian grounds because of health issues.

"We urgently appeal to the Islamic Republic of Iran to release Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal without further delay and show the same compassion to them that the Iranian authorities graciously extended to their companion Sarah Shourd," Tutu, Maguire and Chomsky wrote in a joint statement. "We are profoundly saddened that Shane and Josh have been detained for 15 months and deeply concerned that they now face a trial on charges that bear no relation to the facts and are unsupported by any credible evidence."

Monday, Iran delayed the hikers' espionage trial, which was to begin Saturday, saying it could not proceed without Shourd, who has been summoned to appear in court.

"It is better that the accused released on bail would return to Iran because all three had committed a joint crime and should be tried together," judiciary spokesman and National Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei told Iranian state media. "Now whether Ms. Shourd comes back or not is another question."

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