Iran opens trial of US 'hikers'

I wish these guys all the luck with the fair trial they are going to receive in Iran !
Uh, well I wish them luck.


Al Jizz era
An Iranian court has begun closed-door proceedings in the espionage trial of three Americans, two still in custody and one freed on bail.

The trial on Sunday of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, along with that of Sarah Shourd, who was released on $500,000 bail in September, comes 18 months after they were arrested on July 31 2009 near Iran's border with Iraq.

The three, in their late twenties and early thirties, say they were hiking in the mountains of northern Iraq and crossed the unmarked border by mistake.

Iran held them on suspicion of spying, a crime which can carry the death penalty.

Barack Obama, the US president, met Shourd on her return to the United States, an event he called "bittersweet" due to the continued detention of the other two, one of whom is Shourd's fiance.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, suggested last February that the Americans might be released as part of a prisoner swap for Iranians he says were abducted or tricked into going to the United States and jailed without due legal process.