A bail offer for two Americans convicted of spying is still under review, Iran’s powerful judiciary said Wednesday in a potentially embarrassing rejection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s prediction of their imminent release.
The statement by the hard-line judiciary appears to be a message that only its officials can set the timetables and conditions on any possible release and not the president. It is seen as a further blow in Mr. Ahmadinejad’s bitter power struggle with Iran’s ruling clerics who control the courts.
It also could be a swipe at Mr. Ahmadinejad’s hopes of timing the release of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal with his expected arrival in New York next week for the United Nations general assembly.
On Tuesday, defense lawyer Masoud Shafiei said the court handling the case had set bail of $500,000 each for the Americans, who were detained in July 2009 while hiking along the Iran-Iraq border. A third American, Sarah Shourd, was released last year on the same bail—but only after similar mixed messages between Mr. Ahmadinejad and the judiciary over the timing.
In the end, Ms. Shourd left Iran on a private jet to the Gulf state of Oman just as Mr. Ahmadinejad was heading for New York.
The judiciary statement suggests that the bail plan for Mr. Bauer and Mr. Fattal still needs to be approved by the higher ranks of Iran’s legal system, which include members of the theocracy’s inner circle.
“Two American citizens charged with espionage haven’t been released. Request from lawyers of these two defendants to issue bail and free [them] is under study,” the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency quoted the statement as saying.
“Information about this case will be provided by the judiciary. Any information supplied by individuals about this is not authoritative,” the statement added in a clear jab at Mr. Ahmadinejad.
Messrs. Bauer and Fattal, both 29 years old, were sentenced last month to three years each for illegal entry into Iran and five years each for spying for the U.S. They have denied the charges and appealed the verdicts. Ms. Shourd’s case remains open. The Americans say they may have mistakenly crossed into Iran when they stepped off a dirt road while hiking near a waterfall in the semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
The U.S. government has appealed for the two men to be released, insisting that they have done nothing wrong. The two countries have no direct diplomatic relations. Washington relies on the Swiss embassy in Tehran to follow the case.
Mr. Ahmadinejad, in an interview aired Tuesday on NBC’s “Today” show, predicted the Americans could be freed “in a couple of days.” He described the bail offer as a “humanitarian gesture” and repeated complaints about attention for Iranians held in U.S. prisons.
In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. was “encouraged” by Mr. Ahmadinejad’s comments about freeing Messrs. Bauer and Fattal.
“We obviously hope that we will see a positive outcome from what appears to be a decision by the government,” Mrs. Clinton said at the State Department on Tuesday.
The families of Messrs. Bauer and Fattal said in a statement that they are “overjoyed” by the reports from Iran.
Lawyer Masoud Shafiei said the court would begin the process to free Messrs. Bauer and Fattal after payment of the bail, which must be arranged through third parties because of U.S. economic sanctions on Iran. The timing of the court’s decision is similar to last year’s bail deal mediated by the Gulf state of Oman that freed Ms. Shourd.
“They accepted to set bail to release,” Mr. Shafiei said after leaving court. “The amount is the same for Sarah.”
Source: Wall Street Journal