Health could be key to hiker’s release in Iran
Family asks U.S. to pay bail for detained woman
TEHRAN, Iran – Swiss diplomats continued vying with Iranian officials Monday for the release of an American woman held in prison without charges for over a year, her urgent health issues potentially helping both sides reach an accord.
Sarah Shourd, 32, was to be released Saturday, but Iran’s judiciary canceled the announced press event, demanding $500,000 in bail money before she could be freed. The Swiss asked Monday that the amount be reduced or waived, as Shourd’s family cannot afford it, an attorney for the family said.
Shourd was arrested in July 2009 along with fellow University of California at Berkeley graduates Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, both 28, near the Iran-Iraq border, as the trio was hiking a path known in that region of Iraq as a tourist attraction, their families have said. Iran has accused the hikers of being U.S. spies, which the State Department denied.
Department spokesman Fred Lash said the agency has been asked several times if the U.S. could play a role in funding Shourd’s release, but the U.S. has not traditionally paid bail for its citizens held prisoner in other countries.
“We’re taking it one step at a time in somewhat uncharted territory,” he added. “We’re kind of in the dark,” Lash said, as Swiss diplomats – acting on behalf of the U.S., which has no formal diplomacy with Iran – have been able to visit Shourd recently, but could not confirm her health condition or the status and conditions of her potential release.
In the months after the arrest, the hikers’ families and supporters tried numerous tactics to get Iran to release all three, appealing to Iran on humanitarian grounds, offering praise for the Iranian cultural values of clemency and forgiveness and finally taking a harder line, demanding Iran follow its own laws and either charge or release the hikers.
It wasn’t until Shourd’s reported health problems surfaced in the news that they appeared to make any headway. In August, Shourd’s mother announced that Shourd found a lump in her breast and had developed some precancerous cells.
Omid Memarian, an Iranian journalist who fled the country and moved to Berkeley about five years ago, said Monday he believes the judiciary is concerned Shourd could die in prison. While Iranian intelligence agencies are in charge of the investigation, the judiciary runs the prison, and experienced international trouble when a Canadian journalist died there in 2003.