TEHRAN — The trial of three American citizens held in Iran and accused of illegally entering Iranian territory and spying began behind closed doors on Sunday, according to Iranian news agencies.
Press TV, via Associated Press
From left, Shane M. Bauer, Sarah E. Shourd and Joshua F. Fattal in Tehran in May 2010. The trial was postponed after Ms. Shourd failed to return to Iran after being released for medical reasons.
Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters
The lawyer for the three, Masoud Shafiee, said the presiding judge had assured him that he would be permitted to see his clients “one or two hours” before the opening of proceedings.
Unnamed judicial sources quoted by Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, which is closely linked with Iran’sRevolutionary Guards Corps, stated that Joshua F. Fattal and Shane M. Bauer, both 28, were due to appear at branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court at 10am on Sunday, more than 18 months after their capture by border guards near Iran’s border with Iraqi Kurdistan in June 2009.
The same officials stated that they were “unaware” of whether a third American, Sarah E. Shourd, 32, who faces the same charges, would be appearing at the court session. Ms. Shourd spent 14 months in detention before being released on bail in September 2009 for medical reasons, at which point she returned to the United States.
The trial of the three was postponed in November after Ms. Shourd failed to return to Iran to appear alongside Mr. Fattal and Mr. Bauer, though today’s announcement of the trial and her continued absence suggest that she is likely to be tried in absentia.
Speaking to Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency on Saturday, the lawyer for the three, Masoud Shafiee, said that Ms. Shourd had been summoned by Iran’s Foreign Ministry and had provided a statement to be read in her defense. Iran’s authorities have stated that Ms. Shourd’s $500,000 bail would be forfeited if she failed to return to face charges.
Mr. Shafiee also said that he had not been allowed to see his clients to prepare them for their defense, though the presiding judge had assured him that he would be permitted to see them “one or two hours” before the opening of proceedings.
All three have denied that they knowingly entered Iranian territory or that they were involved in espionage.
Domestic analysts believe that Mr. Bauer and Mr. Fattal will eventually be released after back-door deal-making similar to the arrangements which many believe to have taken place between Iran and France over the release of French academic, Clotilde Reiss, who was arrested and accused of espionage during the first days of the street protests which erupted following the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.
Ms. Reiss was allowed to leave Iran in May 2010 shortly before the release by France of Ali Vakili Rad, who was convicted in the assassination of Shapour Bakhtiar, an Iranian prime minister from the time of the shah who was living in exile, in 1991. France and Iran denied speculation that the two releases were linked.
However, clouding the issue over the fate of the American citizens is the continuing diplomatic impasse between Iran and the United States after the most recent round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program held in Istanbul in January ended with no clear progress after both sides refused to back down on major points of contention.
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