U.S. “hikers” to be freed from Iran jail (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Two Americans held in Iran for more than two years as spies will be released later on Wednesday to Swiss diplomats who represent U.S. interests in the Islamic Republic, their lawyer said.

Swiss Ambassador Livia Leu Agosti was waiting in a car in front of Iran’s Evin prison where Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer were being held, a Reuters journalist reported, signaling their release was imminent.

Bauer and Fattal were arrested in mid-2009 along Iran’s border with Iraq where they said they were hiking. Their release looked set to hand a public relations coup to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who is due to address the United Nations in New York on Thursday.

“I have got necessary signatures from judiciary officials for their release on bail,” lawyer Masoud Shafie told Reuters. “Hopefully the two will be freed today.”

The pair were found guilty of illegal entry and espionage last month and sentenced to eight years in prison, but Ahmadinejad said last week they would be released on compassionate grounds, as had happened to Sarah Shourd, who was arrested with the men but freed on $500,000 last September.

The gesture looked like it might be scuppered by the judiciary, controlled by conservative hardliners at odds with Ahmadinejad, which resisted a swift release, saying the president lacked the authority to free the men.

OMANI, SWISS DIPLOMATS WAIT

Official Iranian media confirmed the judiciary had agreed to the release. “Until the final verdict is issued by the appeals court regarding the two American citizens’ eight-year jail terms … they will be released on $500,000 bail each,” state television quoted the judiciary as saying.

The semi-official Fars news agency quoted the lawyer as saying that the two would be handed over to the Swiss embassy at 1030 GMT. Two hours after that deadline diplomatic cars were still waiting outside the notorious Evin jail.

“There were some problems regarding depositing the bail … We are trying to resolve it with the bank … It will be resolved,” Shafie said.

Along with the Swiss delegation, diplomatic cars from the Omani embassy were outside the jail. “It seems that the Omani delegation is present in Evin to pay the bail,” the official IRNA news agency said.

With no diplomatic relations between Washington and Tehran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, several other countries have tried to bridge the gap. Along with the Swiss and the Omanis, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has also helped mediate, Iraqi officials have said.

Ahmadinejad’s announcement that the men would be freed was seen by analysts as an attempt to improve his international standing before the U.N. General Assembly where his annual interventions regularly outrage the West.

But the release was delayed twice, according to the lawyer, because a judge whose signature was required was away on vacation.

The U.S. government denies that the three Americans were spies and their supporters say that no evidence against them has been made public. Their trial was held behind closed doors.

Iranian media had speculated that the Americans could be swapped for Iranian prisoners held in U.S. jails but there has been no report of any prisoner release in the United States.

— ’re ’s , . : A ‘Malign Intellectual Subculture’ – George Monbiot Smears Chomsky, Herman, Peterson, Pilger And Media Lens.