Moms to meet 3 Americans held in Iran again today

[May 21, 2010]  TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Three Americans jailed in Iran for 10 months will be reunited with their mothers again on Friday, according to a lawyer representing the trio -- the second such meeting arranged by Iranian authorities.

Attorney Masoud Shafii told The Associated Press the three were taken back to prison Thursday evening after the first reunion with their mothers, who arrived in Iran on Wednesday for a weeklong visit in hopes of securing their children's release.

Iran has accused the trio -- Sarah Shourd, 31; her boyfriend, Shane Bauer, 27; and their friend Josh Fattal, 27 -- of spying and entering Iran illegally after being detained on the porous border with Iraq last July. Their relatives say the three were simply hiking in Iraq's scenic and largely peaceful mountainous northern Kurdish region.

On Thursday, the trio was brought to see their mothers in the high-rise Esteghlal Hotel in north Tehran, which overlooks the Evin Prison where they have been held.

The emotional meeting, with embraces and an abundant lunch featuring traditional Mideast dishes, received extensive coverage on Iran's state-run Press TV, the government's main English-language broadcast arm. Reporters for the foreign media also were allowed their first glimpse of the three Americans.

The decision to give a highly scripted public face to the private family moments suggests the trip by Nora Shourd, Cindy Hickey and Laura Fattal could be drawn deeper into Iran's brinksmanship with the West over Tehran's disputed nuclear program and a U.S.-led push for harsher sanctions.

Shafii predicted it was "very unlikely" that the jailed Americans would be allowed to return home with their mothers because the case has not yet reached the courts. But he said in an interview with AP Television News that decisions could be made outside the normal legal framework and that "anything can happen."

Shafii said Friday the second meeting with the mothers would take place after 4 p.m.

The three prisoners did not specifically address any of the accusations during the first reunion. It's unclear whether this was their decision or a requirement by Iranian officials.

Iran granted the women visas to visit their children in what it called an "Islamic humanitarian gesture" and the Americans appealed to them to release the three on the same grounds.

"We hope we're going home soon, maybe with our mothers," Josh Fattal said as the group was interviewed while seated together on a low-slung couch.

The three prisoners appeared healthy, wearing jeans and polo-style shirts. Sarah Shourd wore a maroon-colored head scarf. They described their routines behind bars and the small things that take on major significance: being allowed books, letters from home, the ability for some exercise and the one hour each day they are all together. The last direct contact with their families was a five-minute phone call in March.

Shafii said the mothers were seeking to bring their appeal to the highest levels, even hoping for meetings with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters.

Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency reported that the mothers met Friday morning with the families of five Iranian diplomats arrested in 2007 by U.S. troops in Iraq on suspicion of aiding Shiite militants. The Iranians, captured in a raid on their hotel in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, were released in 2009.

Just before the mothers' arrival in Tehran, Washington said it had won support from other major powers for a new set of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran over its refusal to stop uranium enrichment.

The U.S., which has not had formal diplomatic relations with Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and its allies accuse Tehran of seeking atomic weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

In recent years, a number of foreigners held by Iranian authorities on espionage and other security-related charges have been released after months of detention -- most recently French academic Clotilde Reiss, 24. She was freed last week after more than 10 months in jail. She had been accused of provoking unrest and spying during unrest that broke out after June's disputed presidential election.

Hickey lives in Minnesota, Shourd is from Oakland, California, and Fattal is from suburban Philadelphia.

[Associated Press; By NASSER KARIMI]

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