Iran to Free 1 of 3 American Hikers    09/09 13:24

   TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran said Thursday it will free one of three Americans 
jailed for more than 13 months in an act of clemency to mark the end of the 
Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

   The imprisonment of the Americans has deepened tensions between the U.S. and 
Iran, a relationship already strained over Washington's suspicions that Tehran 
is trying to manufacture nuclear weapons. Iran denies that.

   The Culture Ministry sent a text message to reporters telling them to come 
to a Tehran hotel on Saturday morning to witness the release. The site is the 
same one where the three were allowed the only meeting with their mothers since 
they were detained in July 2009, when Iran claims they illegally crossed the 
border from Iraq's Kurdish region.

   "Offering congratulations on Eid al-Fitr," the ministry text message said, 
referring to the feast that marks the end of Ramadan.

   "The release of one of the detained Americans will be Saturday at 9 a.m. at 
the Estaghlal hotel."

   The Iranian message gave no other details about who would be freed. But 
Sarah Shourd, 31, has told her mother she has serious medical problems. Two 
American men also are being held.

   The gesture could be a calculated move by Iran to soften international 
criticism of its judiciary. Iran has faced a growing storm of protest over a 
stoning sentence for a woman convicted of adultery that has been temporarily 
suspended.

   Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has in the past proposed swapping the 
three for Iranians he says are jailed in the U.S., raising fears that the 
Americans are being held as bargaining chips.

   Releasing prisoners and showing clemency is a common practice in the Muslim 
world during the fasting month of Ramadan. Iran's official IRNA news agency 
said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has already pardoned a group of 
prisoners for Eid al-Fitr. The report gave no number of the freed inmates and 
did not say whether they also included the American.

   The mother of the detained American woman, Nora Shourd, said her daughter 
told her in a telephone call in August that prison officials have denied her 
requests for medical treatment. The mother said they talked about her 
daughter's medical problems, including a breast lump and precancerous cervical 
cells, and her solitary confinement in Tehran's Evin prison.

   During the American hostage crisis in 1979-1981, Iran first released women 
and African-Americans as a sign of respect for women and mercy toward 
minorities.

   Shourd; her boyfriend, Shane Bauer, 27; and their friend Josh Fattal, 27, 
have been held in Iran since July 2009, when they were arrested along the Iraqi 
border. Iran has accused them of espionage; their families say they were hiking 
in Iraq's largely peaceful mountainous northern Kurdish region and that if they 
crossed the border, it was accidental.

   In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said U.S. officials are 
in contact with Swiss diplomats who handle U.S. affairs in Iran.

   "We don't know, frankly, what Iran is contemplating at this point," Toner 
said. "If this turns out to be true, this is terrific news. The hikers' release 
is long overdue."

   A statement by Samantha Topping, a New York-based spokeswoman for the three 
mothers, said they are "urgently seeking further information."

   "We hope and pray that the reports are true and that this signals the end of 
all three of our children's long and difficult detention," the statement said. 
"Shane, Sarah and Josh are all innocent and we continue to call for their 
immediate release, so that they can return home together and be reunited with 
our families."

   Iranian leaders have repeatedly suggested a link between the jailing of the 
Americans and Iranians they claim are held by the United States.

   The Swiss embassy in Tehran has handled consular affairs for the United 
States for about 30 years, since after 1979 Iranian revolution. Swiss diplomats 
refused to comment Thursday on any possible release of the three detained 
Americans but are expected to be involved in any transfer.

   Ali Reza Shiravi, the head of Iran's foreign media office at the Culture 
Ministry, confirmed that he had sent the message summoning reports to the hotel.

   The high-rise Estaghlal hotel near Evin prison is where the three Americans' 
mothers were allowed to visit them in May in a highly publicized trip.

   Nora Shourd said the U.S.-based families of the hikers had seen the news 
reports out of Iran but had no idea whether they were true.

   "We don't know anything," Shourd told The Associated Press. "We're trying 
like crazy to see what we can find out. I hope it's true --- that's all I can 
say for sure. But I don't know if it is."

   Nora Shourd had the last contact with any of the three jailed Americans, 
when Sarah called her on Aug. 2 and the two spoke for three or four minutes.


(KA)