Three US citizens facing spying charges in Iran

TEHRAN (AFP) – Three American hikers taken into custody by Iranian guards near the border with Iraq on July 31 are facing charges of spying, Iran's judiciary said on Monday.

Tehran chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi was quoted by the IRNA news agency as saying the investigations were continuing against the three, Shane Bauer, 27, Sarah Shourd, 31, and Josh Fattal, 27, and that a statement on their fate would be made in the near future.

"The three Americans arrested near the border of Iran and Iraq are facing charges of spying and the inquiry is continuing," he said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Berlin there was "no evidence" for Iran to charge the Americans.

"We believe strongly that there is no evidence to support any charge whatsoever," Clinton told reporters during a visit to Germany for celebrations commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall.

"And we would renew our request on the behalf of these three young people and their families that the Iranian government exercise compassion and release them so they can return home," she said.

"And we will continue to make that case through our Swiss protecting power, who represents the United States in Tehran," Clinton said.

Family and friends of the three have said they were hiking in a mountainous border region in northern Iraq near a famous waterfall when they unintentionally strayed into Iran.

A friend of the trio, who would had travelled with them to Iraq for the hike and would have been with them at the time of their arrest but for a bout of illness, appealed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week to free them as soon as possible.

"Mr President, by continuing to deprive Shane, Sarah and Josh of their liberty, Iran is working against some of the very causes it supports," Shon Meckfessel wrote.

"Each of these three has a long and public record of contesting injustice in the world and addressing some of the inequities between rich and poor which you have spoken about through their humanitarian work in their own country and overseas."

Meckfessel wrote that Bauer is a fluent Arabic speaker who "has focused on injustices in the Arab world, in Iraq and Palestine in particular," and said Shourd helped rebuild homes after Hurricane Katrina, and helped poor people fight evictions from their homes in the United States.

He described Fattal as passionate about "justice, environmental sustainability and intercultural exchange."

A diplomat from Switzerland, which represents US interests in Iran, visited the three Americans in Iran's notorious Evin prison last month, according to their families, who said the trio were "in good physical shape."