Sarah Shourd, 32, who was released in September on bail, is currently in the United States, while her fiancée, Shane Bauer, and their friend, Josh Fattal, are still being held in Evin prison.
Iran has summoned Shourd to be present for the February 6 trial, judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossain Mohseni-Ejai said Monday. The trial was originally set for November, but was postponed, officials said, because Shourd had not been formally summoned.
Mohseni-Ejai said Shourd’s $500,000 bail money would be confiscated if she is not in court February 6. No one knows who paid the bail money. Shourd’s family has said relatives did not put up the money. Shourd’s release was arranged by the government of Oman and it is widely assumed the Omani government or someone from Oman put up the bail.
Earlier this month, Musa Qorbani, a member of the Majlis Judicial and Legal Committee asserted that the trial would continue with or without Shourd.
Qorbani’s comments were referencing a statement Shourd had supposedly made about not returning, but there was no such statement. In fact, Shourd has not made any comments about whether she will return for the Iran trial. A publicist for the families, Samantha Topping, said Shourd had no plans to comment.
According to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Mohseni-Ejai announced that in addition to illegal entry, the three Americans would be charged with espionage, the first definitive confirmation that they would face that charge, for which the death penalty can be imposed.
The trio was arrested July 31, 2009, and officials initially talked about them as spies. But within weeks, officials were very careful to say the three had only been charged with illegal entry and the allegations of espionage were under investigation.
Last fall, Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafar-Dolatabadi said he found “compelling evidence” the hikers were working with US intelligence, but no Iranian official had confirmed until now that those charges would go to trial.
The two men remaining in Evin appear to be facing harsher conditions. Their families say they have become more isolated since her release, with less time outside their cell and fewer family letters making it into their hands. “The books and letters are important,” said Laura Fattal, Josh Fattal’s mother. “This is their lifeline—they exercise and they read.”
Fattal and Bauer last spoke to their families by phone at Thanksgiving. They made one other phone call last March and were permitted a brief visit from their mothers in May. In the November call, Bauer reportedly told his mother, “I have no idea what’s going on with my case, what’s happening with it.”
In a December op-ed on CNN’s website, Shourd wrote that hers as well as Bauer’s and Fattal’s imprisonments would not have been so long if diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States were better. Although continuously questioned and criticized, Shourd supports and promotes dialogue between the two nations. She has told reporters that this experience has reaffirmed her desire to attend graduate school and study Middle Eastern politics and conflict resolution.
“I’m determined to be a bridge,” she said. “I want so badly for there to be less ignorance on both sides. I think it’s the lack of cultural exchange between the United States and Iran over three decades [that has] led to a point where something like this can happen. We are on the wrong track.”
Many have taken up the cause of the trio.
Fundraisers have been launched all across the United States and elsewhere to raise money for legal fees, document translations, and travel expenses that support the effort to win Bauer’s and Fattal’s freedom.
The most recent event in San Francisco last Saturday included an art auction and concert featuring Shourd and several songs she wrote while imprisoned. One of the compositions, “Piece of Time,” was released as a single in late November specifically to raise funds and awareness of the hikers’ plight.
International figures including American academic Noam Chomsky, retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and actor Sean Penn said in a statement to Iranian officials on Monday, “The time for Shane and Josh’s freedom is overdue and we implore you to allow them to go free and return to their families.”
Chomsky’s outspokenness was especially notable. He is very popular among government officials in Tehran because of his frequent criticism of US policy.
In a YouTube video, Chom-sky supported the hikers and said he would happily “testify on their good record and their dedication to worthy and important causes.” He praised the dedication of the two to “social and environmental justice” and hoped they would not be tried.
