Belgian bicyclists Idesbald Van den Bosch and Vincent Boon Falleur said they had some contact with University of California, Berkeley, graduates Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal, who were detained July 31 while hiking a trail that crisscrossed the unmarked Iran-Iraq border. The Belgians, who were arrested Sept. 5, saw the Americans at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, where both groups were accused of espionage.
"We're deeply concerned for their well-being," Van den Bosch and Falleur wrote in a news release. "The psychological stresses of detention were very great, especially during interrogation and solitary confinement."
Shon Meckfessel / AP
Josh Fattal, left, Shane Bauer, center, and Sarah Shourd were arrested July 31 while hiking along the Iran-Iraq border. Two Belgians who saw them in an Iranian prison last last year said the three were being held in solitary confinement.
As of early December, when Van den Bosch and Falleur were released, the American hikers were being held in solitary confinement, a harrowing experience the Belgian men describe in detail.
"We were in cells with no outside contact and a ceiling light on day and night," they wrote. "No communication was possible with other prisoners or with our families. Everything was designed to make us feel very lonely."
Van den Bosch and Falleur added, "From our own experience, we can only imagine that the psychological pressure put on the hikers to confess to crimes they are innocent of is extremely intense. Their feeling of loneliness must be extreme."
In an additional statement to AOL News, Van den Bosch said he overheard one of the hikers asking a prison officer if and when he was going to court and requesting to see the Swiss ambassador. Van den Bosch said he also heard the hiker ask for a television. He told AOL News the prison officer responded by saying he would pass the requests to the hiker's investigator.
The Belgians' account provides much-sought-after insight for the hikers' families and the U.S. government, which last heard of the Americans' condition in October, when a Swiss diplomat who was allowed to visit them reported they were in "good physical condition."
Van den Bosch told ABC News that while one hiker he observed appeared depressed, "he did not look thin. We were well fed, well treated. We were not badly treated physically."
The families of Bauer, Shourd and Fattal responded to the new information with another impassioned plea to the Iranian authorities to "release our loved ones and end our sorrow."
"We greatly appreciate the support that Vincent and Idesbald have given us and share their families' joy that they are home safe," the hikers' families said in a written release. "We remain deeply concerned about Shane, Sarah and Josh and their well-being. On Sunday, they will have been held for six months, with no contact with their families -- not even one phone call -- and have not had access to their lawyer."
The Belgian tourists' report also prompted a statement from the U.S. State Department, which on Wednesday accused Iran of denying Swiss ambassadors access to the American prisoners.
"It is outrageous that Iran refuses to abide by international standards, international agreements in terms of treatment of those who are in their care," State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said. "We will continue to press the Iranian government so that we can see for ourselves ... what the conditions of our citizens are."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for the hikers' release, saying there is "no evidence whatsoever" that the Americans were spying on the Islamic Republic. Iran indicated earlier this month it was close to convening a spy trial against the three.
Some have questioned why the Americans journeyed along the Iraq-Iran border, which contains highly dangerous patches. The fourth member of the hikers' group, Shon Meckfessel, who skipped the now-fateful hike due to illness, said his companions were seeking out a waterfall they had heard about from locals.
"We ignored what seemed like little, insignificant details in the moment that you would never think had such consequences," he said at a vigil in December. "We were in a safe region of Iraq. People were all very sweet, and there was no reason for us to feel on guard, which of course now we wish hadn't been our mind-set."
On their Web site, Freethehikers.org, the families of Bauer, Shourd and Fattal defend them from criticism -- and the allegations of the Iranian authorities.
"Shane, Josh and Sarah care greatly about the world in which we live. They admire and respect different cultures and religions and share a love of travel that has taken them to many countries," the families write. "That is why they went to Kurdistan, not because they wanted to enter Iran."
Iran executed two people Thursday who were sentenced to death for their role in the bloody protests against the Islamic Republic's disputed presidential election last June. It was the first report of executions of people who were tried for their connection to the protests. The ISNA students' agency said the two who were hanged were among a group of 11 people sentenced to death on charges including waging war against God and trying to overthrow the Islamic establishment.
