FREE the HIKERS
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VIDEO: Sarah & Shane, #USHikers In Iran Sick #SSJ
BERKELEY, Calif. —The mothers of the three hikers talked with KTVU news about what they’ve learned from Swiss diplomats who were allowed to visit the hikers in jail. One mother, Nora Shourd, has waited 265 days, or 9 long months for Iran to release her daughter and two other UC graduates from prison, and there’s still no end in sight.
“We’re really concerned about these kids, we’re concerned more than we were before if that’s possible,” said Shourd.
In Berkeley Friday, Shourd said she’s more concerned than ever about her 31-year-old daughter Sarah after the Swiss ambassador to Iran visited her, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal Thursday in the notorious Evin prison for the first time since October. The ambassador told Shourd that her daughter is suffering from a precancerous chronic gynecological ailment and depression.
“It’s very hard for her to be alone, she’s by herself in the cell,” said Shourd.
Bauer and Fattal are housed together but Shourd is in solitary confinement except for half an hour a day when the three meet together. Bauer, a freelance online journalist, has some stomach pains.
“They were simply innocent tourists in the Iraq Kurdistan region when they were first detained,” said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. “There is no justification for their ongoing detention. They should be released without further delay.”
Iranian guards arrested the three Americans last July when they strayed over an unmarked border with Iraq while on a hiking vacation. Iranian officials say they’re spies but the three have not been charged with anything. And now, the news two of them are in poor health.
“I think Iran is punishing our government through punishing our kids and punishing their families and we ask that they separate that because they certainly can release these kids,” said Shourd.
The three mothers have been waiting almost three-and-a-half months for a visa to go to Iran to visit their children. As of Friday, the family had heard nothing.
News Story by KTVU San Francisco
