U.S. hikers: "We were hostages"

Shourd: ‘Huge Burden’ Lifted After 2 Hikers Freed

Chris Hondros/Getty Images

NEW YORK (AP) – Sarah Shourd says a “huge burden” has been lifted now that the two American hikers held with her in Iran have been freed and returned to the U.S.
Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer landed Sunday in New York. They were freed under a $1 million bail deal after more than two years in prison.
Shourd and the two men were hiking along the Iran-Iraq border in 2009 when Iranian guards detained them. The three were later charged with spying.
Shourd was released last year and reunited Wednesday in Oman with her fellow hikers.
She said at a news conference Sunday that she had felt “it was very wrong” that she was alone when she first came home. Now that the men are back, Shourd says she’s never felt as free.

Josh Fattal, left, addresses reporters as Shane Bauer, right, holds hands with Sarah Shourd, his fiance, on Sunday, Sept. 25, 2011 in New York. Fattal and Bauer, both 29, were freed last week under a $1 million bail deal and arrived Wednesday in Oman, greeted by relatives and fellow hiker Shourd, who was released last year. The two American hikers held for more than two years in an Iranian prison. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

NEW YORK (AP) — Two American hikers held for years in an Iranian prison came home Sunday, declaring that they were detained because of their nationality, not because they might have crossed the border from Iraq.
Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer arrived in New York on Sunday morning, ending their diplomatic and personal ordeal with a sharp rebuke of the country that sentenced each to eight years in jail for espionage and illegally walking into Iran. They say they may never know if they actually stepped across the border while hiking and getting lost.
“From the very start, the only reason we have been held hostage is because we are American,” Fattal said at a news conference at a Manhattan hotel. “Iran has always tied our case to its political disputes with the U.S.”

Shane Bauer (center) and Josh Fattal, two U.S. hikers held by Iran for more than two years on spying charges, with former fellow detainee Sarah Shroud, during a New York City press conference after arriving back in the U.S.

 

NEW YORK - Two U.S. citizens sentenced in Iran to eight years in jail for spying arrived in New York Sunday accompanied by family four days after being released by Iranian authorities.
Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal made the last leg of their journey home from Oman, where they had flown after officials there secured their release from Iran with $1 million bail.