Thursday, the families of Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, and Josh Fattal, three U.S. hikers detained in Tehran July 31 for allegedly crossing its border illegally from northern Iraq, submitted the petition calling for their release “as soon as possible.” The hikers’ mothers have been actively gaining support at vigils with petitions, speaking with the media, and pressing for consular access which has thus far been denied.
While their families have not heard from them since their detainment, Swiss diplomats who were allowed to visit the American hikers in September reported that they are in good health.
Shourd, a photojournalist, was living with Bauer in Damascus, Syria where Sarah teaches English. Fattal visited them in July and the three experienced hikers chose Iraqi Kurdistan for their hiking vacation because of a better climate than Damascus: “it was beautiful and it was hiking. And they had no intention of going to Iran,” Josh’s mother Laura Fattal said.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has maintained in an NBC news interview that the hikers “trampled the law, and in accordance with the laws, they need to be punished.”
See freethehikers.org for details on the hikers and the petition.
October 16, 2009