When breaking news came on Tuesday that Iran will allow the mothers of three Americans arrested along the Iranian border in July 2009 to visit their grown children in a Tehran prison I knew this old postcard must run this week.
The beauty of the mountains in the background is especially poignant, as the three young Americans were hiking in those mountains when they strayed off course and were captured. Read the report by the Associated Press for full background and up-to-date information. Here are portions:
Iran has accused Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal of illegal border crossing, spying and having links to U.S. intelligence, and has said they would be brought to trial. Their families and the U.S. government have denied the spying accusations and called for their release.
The families of the three University of California at Berkeley graduates say they were hiking in the scenic Kurdistan region of northern Iraq and that if they did cross the border with Iran, they did so unintentionally...
...The only contact the families have had came in brief phone calls their children were allowed to make in March.
Last month, after the visit by Swiss diplomats, the mothers of Shourd and Bauer said the two were in poor health.
Shourd, who is being held alone in a cell, is suffering a serious gynecological condition and battling depression, while Bauer has a stomach ailment, their mothers said in April.
The Swiss diplomats reported that Bauer and Fattal were being held in the same cell. Shourd was allowed to see them once a day for a few minutes...
The video below is from an interview with two of the mothers in February 2010, when they had received first reports that a visit may be allowed in the future. One of the moms says in the interview that it had been 200 days since they had seen or heard from their kids. The time is longer now by three months. Let's hope that Iran doesn't back down from the decision to allow these visits.
Mothers of Jailed US Hikers Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd Urge Iran to Release Their Children
Free the Hikers.org
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