Tehran, Iran (AHN) – Iran has temporarily postponed the trial of three American hikers; proceedings were scheduled to start on Saturday.

Explaining the delay, the judiciary spokesman said that one of the co-accused Sarah Shourd, who was freed on bail due to illness in September, could not be summoned to attend the trial.

All three are charged with spying. However, the suspects claimed that they mistakenly entered the Islamic nation while hiking near the Iraqi border and insisted that they were not American spies.

The White House has also repeatedly urged Iran to release the remaining two men – Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, adding that there was no basis for a trial. The three friends were arrested last year when Iranian forces captured them while they were hiking in Iraq’s Kurdistan region in July 2009.

The forces claimed that the hikers were intentionally crossing the border. Lawyer representing the hikers’ families, Masoud Shafii, said that they face espionage charges as well as charges of entering the country illegally.

View full post on Politics Stories