The country’s judiciary confirmed on Wednesday that Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 29, had been released only a month after a court sentenced them each to eight years in jail for espionage and illegally crossing the border into Iran. The two men are reportedly preparing to return home.

“Branch 36 of Tehran’s appeals court has agreed to commute the detention sentences of the two US nationals to release on a bail of $500,000,” the judiciary said in a statement reported by Iran’s state-run Press TV.

A convoy of cars belonging to Swiss and Omani diplomats has been seen leaving Evin prison in Tehran with the two Americans believed to be inside. Iran’s semi-official news agency Isna quoted their lawyer as saying they would head towards Tehran’s Mehrabad airport.

In July 2009 the men, along with their friend Sarah Shourd, 33, were arrested by Iranian security forces after walking across an unmarked border between Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan.

Shourd – who became engaged to Bauer while in jail – was released last September on health grounds, after $500,000 (£324,000) was paid in a similar agreement. Iran’s judiciary has a history of asking for large amounts of money as bail. For prisoners who leave Iran after securing bail, the payment is in effect buying their freedom.

The two men’s lawyer, Masoud Shafiei, was accompanied by officials from the embassies of Oman and Switzerland as he went into Tehran’s notorious Evin to receive the two men. The US does not have an embassy in Tehran, but the Swiss embassy hosts an American “interests section”.

“The case is over,” Shafiei said before going inside Evin. “The court has ordered that they be freed on bail.”

The release comes after several days in which Shafiei attempted to secure the bail agreement. It emerged last week that Iraq and Oman had also been involved in negotiations for the release of the two men. A group of top officials from the two countries had reportedly been seen in the capital Tehran joining the talks. Isna said Oman had paid the bail for the pair.

A private plane from Oman was also reported to have arrived in Tehran in readiness to transfer the two men out of the country – probably to the Gulf state – before their final departure to the US. Shourd also initially flew to Oman after her release last year before going home.

The Americans have denied that the two men were involved in espionage and say they unwittingly crossed the unmarked border while hiking, after stepping off a dirt track near a waterfall.

Their release comes a week after the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told two US media organisations that the pair had been granted a “unilateral pardon”.

But the following day, Iran’s judiciary cast doubt on the release.

Analysts interpreted the delay as the latest episode in a power struggle between Ahmadinejad and conservatives close to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Ahmadinejad has in recent months suffered from a series of setbacks in his confrontation with conservatives and is currently seen by many as a lame-duck president struggling to preserve his dwindling power before his term ends in 2013.

Observers say the two Americans became victims of a feud between Ahmadinejad and his opponents. Some speculated that Iran kept the two in jail to use them as a means to put pressure on western powers, especially the US and its allies.

It is not clear why Iran has finally decided to release the two, but analysts have interpreted the move as an attempt to reduce tensions with the international community at a time when negotiations over its nuclear programme are deadlocked.

In reaction their release, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and north Africa, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, said: “It is a welcome – if long overdue – step that the Iranian authorities have finally seen sense and released Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal. They must now be allowed to leave Iran promptly to be reunited with their families.”

She added: “All available evidence strongly suggests that the Iranian authorities have known all along that these men were not spies and should have been released. They should now release all prisoners of conscience held simply for peacefully expressing their views.”

Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk