Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- The trial of three U.S. hikers started Sunday in Iran, according to the office of the lawyer representing them.
Iran accuses Americans Shane Bauer, 28, Josh Fattal, 28, and Sarah Shourd, 32, of spying and trespassing.
They were detained July 31, 2009, after they allegedly strayed across an unmarked border into Iran while hiking in Iraq's Kurdistan region.
Shourd was released on bail in September 2010 because of a medical condition and immediately left the country. She has not responded to a court summons to return to stand trial, lawyer Masoud Shafii said Saturday.
Iranian authorities said she will be tried in absentia if she doesn't appear in court.
The trial is closed to the press and the public, as is normally the case with revolutionary court proceedings.
Sarah Shourd: 'I still feel numb'
The Swiss ambassador to Iran, who represents American interests in the country, told CNN that Sunday's trial will likely not continue the next day, but at a later date.
"It's going to be soon," Ambassador Livia Lea Agosti said, though she declined to divulge her source. "It's not going to be another three-month wait."
Agosti was not invited to attend the hikers' trial but showed up anyway, she said. She was not able to enter the courtroom but she put in a request to see Bauer and Fattal, according to official IRNA news agency. The pair were present in the courtroom for the proceedings, she told CNN.
Agosti also said that Shourd's decision not to return to Iran to stand trial was her own.
"This was Shourd's personal decision and I don't have any information as to why she didn't appear for the trial," the ambassador said, according to IRNA.
Shafii, the attorney, said he had been denied permission to see Bauer and Fattal the day before the trial began. He told CNN he has reviewed his clients' case file and doesn't see any evidence of a crime.
"In my opinion, they haven't done anything wrong," Shafii said. "The accusation of spying is baseless, and if they trespassed into Iran, it wasn't their fault."
Shafii said the border area where the hikers are accused of trespassing is unmarked and anyone could unwittingly cross over into Iran.
Human rights groups have condemned their arrests and their lengthy wait for a trial in Tehran's notorious Evin prison.
TEHRAN, Iran – Two Americans accused of spying appeared in a closed-door Iranian court session Sunday to begin trial after an 18-month detention that has brought impassioned family appeals, a stunning bail deal to free their companion and backdoor diplomatic outreach by Washington through an Arab ally in the Gulf.
All three -- two in person and one in absentia -- entered not guilty pleas during the five-hour hearing, said their lawyer, Masoud Shafiei.
He added that he was barred by Iranian law from giving any further details of the proceedings. But he noted that the judge decided for at least one more session in Tehran Revolutionary Court, which deals with state security cases including some of the high-profile opposition figures arrested in the violent aftermath of Iran's disputed election in 2009.
He described the jailed Americans -- Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal -- as appearing in good health and said they sat next to him during the trial session.
"I hoped the case would have ended today," Shafiei told The Associated Press. "I now hope they fix the next session for the near future.
The case highlights the power of Iran's judiciary, which is controlled directly by the nation's ruling clerics and has rejected apparent appeals by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to show some leniency.
But Ahmadinejad has also tried to draw attention to Iranians in U.S. jails, raising the possibility the detainees have been viewed as potential bargaining chips with Washington at a time of high-stakes showdowns over Iran's nuclear program.
thank God they weren't sentenced to death, but this is Draconian.
Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- The two U.S. hikers detained for two grueling years in Iran on spying charges have been sentenced to eight years in prison, state-run TV reported Saturday.
Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer each received five years for espionage -- specifically "cooperating with the American intelligence service" -- and three years for illegal entry, the IRINN reported, quoting an "informed" judiciary source.
They have 20 days to appeal their sentence, which was handed down by the Revolutionary Court, IRINN reported.
Fattal and Bauer and another person, Sarah Shourd, were seized on July 31, 2009 when they were hiking in the Iraqi Kurdish region and allegedly crossed into Iran illegally.
Shourd, Bauer's fiance, was released last year because of medical reasons, but the two men remained imprisoned in Iran.
The case has exacerbated tensions between United States and Iran, longtime adversaries over the Islamic republic's nuclear aspirations and Iran's ties to anti-American militants in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
The United States has repeatedly called for their release. U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a recent statement Bauer and Fattal, held in Iran's notorious Evin prison, "have been imprisoned too long, and it is time to reunite them with their families."
World leaders, such as Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, have urged Iran to release the men.
Amnesty International noted that Bauer and Fattal have been granted one brief family visit when their mothers met with them in May 2010.
"They have been denied adequate access to their lawyer and have had very limited access to consular assistance," the human rights watchdog said last month.
"Iranian authorities have ignored repeated appeals from the international community and the men's families to release them and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has hinted that the hikers were being held as a bargaining chip to be used in Iran's dealings with the United States."
Iranian police said the Americans illegally entered Iran. The Tehran Prosecutor's office has "compelling evidence" that the three were cooperating with U.S. intelligence agencies, Press TV has reported.
Shourd has said the hikers did not know they had crossed the border while hiking. Fattal and Bauer pleaded not guilty to the charges. The three are graduates of the University of California at Berkeley.
Their families have made urgent appeals to free the men and they formed a website to muster support for their release.
Their defense attorney, Masoud Shafiei, argued that his clients shouldn't be regarded as spies because they don't have the "characteristics and background of spies."
Shafiei had said the time the two have spent in Iranian custody is enough, even if the court reached a guilty verdict in a recent hearing.
Shourd was released in September and returned to the United States after 410 days of solitary confinement.
She remained a defendant in the case, but was not required to appear in court for a July 31 hearing.
One of these idiots is actually from Minnesota. And, all of them were smart enough to graduate from Cal-Berkeley, however, they all flunked out on the common sense test. You know, the one that asks, "If you can go hiking in any country anywhere in the world, would you choose a country run by a fundamental Islamic government, or would you choose ANY other country?"
They chose wrong. That's all I can come up with. They're idiots, and who knows, maybe they REALLY were spies?
MWS they are young people. At the mercy of those awful people. What a nightmare for them. I feel sorry for them. They were niaive about the dangers of the middle east. They had no idea what they were in for. They are now paying a penalty for being from the US. that's it. It's not about hiking it's about you!
(08-20-2011, 06:06 PM)aussiefriend Wrote: MWS they are young people. At the mercy of those awful people. What a nightmare for them. I feel sorry for them. They were niaive about the dangers of the middle east. They had no idea what they were in for. They are now paying a penalty for being from the US. that's it. It's not about hiking it's about you!
Fuck 'em.
Stupid bastards. Weren't they paying attention to world events?
Okay . . . I'm sorry, aussie. I'm really sad that they won't get to have pulled pork sammiches, BLTs or pork chops with apple sauce for at least eight years.
I hear Muslim men kiss the inmate when finished sodomizing.
Yeh but come on, they are not being imprisoned for crossing the border line or even for hiking. If they even did cross the line. They are being jailed for being american. Remember what they did to your embassy and how they paraded those poor US citizens, it was abhorrant.
(08-20-2011, 06:06 PM)aussiefriend Wrote: MWS they are young people. At the mercy of those awful people. What a nightmare for them. I feel sorry for them. They were niaive about the dangers of the middle east. They had no idea what they were in for. They are now paying a penalty for being from the US. that's it. It's not about hiking it's about you!
Aussie, I think you're being a bit naive here. They knew exactly where they were. Don't put yourself into potentially shitty situations unless you're ready to accept the consequences.
I will be a defender of justice when someone has been truly victimized. I don't believe that's the case here.
(08-20-2011, 06:06 PM)aussiefriend Wrote: MWS they are young people. At the mercy of those awful people. What a nightmare for them. I feel sorry for them. They were niaive about the dangers of the middle east. They had no idea what they were in for. They are now paying a penalty for being from the US. that's it. It's not about hiking it's about you!
Aussie, why would they go hiking in that area? Maybe they really were working for the CIA? They were stupid and now they're facing the consequences. At least Iran let the woman go. They could also be facing the death penalty as convicted spies.
Put yourself in shitty situations and be prepared to pay.
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