Iran’s judiciary says U.S. hikers not being released

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Source: The Washington Post

TEHRAN — Iran’s judiciary on Wednesday denied President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s statements that two American hikers convicted of spying were being pardoned and would be released within two days.

In a statement published in Farsi on its Web site, the judiciary, which constitutionally is independent from other powers in Iran, said it was “not correct” that Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal would be released in the coming days under a “unilateral pardon” that Ahmadinejad said Tuesday he intended to grant.

However, there were signs Wednesday of efforts to put up the $1 million bail that the hikers’ lawyer said court officials told him would be required to gain the release of the two men. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the Persian Gulf state of Oman had sent a private plane to Tehran, as the lawyer and the Swiss Embassy, which represents U.S. diplomatic interests in Iran, moved ahead with arrangements for the bail of $500,000 each for Bauer and Fattal.

In September 2010, a private jet was sent from Oman to Tehran to pick up Sarah Shourd, an American arrested with Bauer and Fattal, after Iranian authorities decided to release her on medical and humanitarian grounds and an Omani businessman paid her $500,000 bail.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/irans-judiciary-says-us-hikers-not-being-released/2011/09/14/gIQANFGVRK_singlePage.html