TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran has charged three detained U.S. citizens with espionage, the official IRNA news agency quoted a prosecutor as saying on Monday, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said there was no evidence to back the charges.
The three, Shane Bauer, 27, Sarah Shourd, 31, and Josh Fattal, 27, were held after they crossed into Iran from northern Iraq at the end of July. Their families said they strayed across the border accidentally. "The three are charged with espionage," Tehran general prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi told IRNA. "Investigations continue into the three detained Americans in Iran."
The case comes at a time of higher tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear plans and after Iranian officials accused foreign nations of fuelling the worst unrest for three decades that erupted after a disputed June presidential election.
The United States has sent strong messages to Iran urging the release of the three hikers, calling on the authorities to exercises "compassion" toward the three Americans.
"We believe strongly that there is no evidence to support any charge whatsoever," Clinton said in Berlin on Monday.
"And we would renew our request on behalf of these three young people and their families that the Iranian government exercise compassion and release them so they can return home, and we will continue to make that case," she added.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggested in an interview with the American television network NBC in September that the Americans' release might be linked to the release of Iranian diplomats he said were being held by U.S. troops in Iraq.
Under Iran's Islamic sharia law, espionage is a crime that is punishable by death.
Some Iranian officials linked the illegal entry of the Americans to the turmoil that erupted after Iran's June poll.
DANISH STUDENT
Ahmadinejad's re-election on June 12, sparked Iran's worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Authorities have denied any vote-rigging and portrayed the unrest as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the Islamic state.
Dolatabadi said the case of a Danish student, detained during a rally on November 4 to mark the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy that also saw opposition demonstrations, was under investigation.
"This accused Danish citizen has introduced himself as a reporter but he holds no official press accreditation. Investigations about him continue," he said. "Today the Danish embassy lawyer was allowed to meet the prisoner."
Police clashed with supporters of Iran's opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in Tehran on Wednesday when they used the anti-U.S. rallies to revive protests against the clerical establishment after June's vote.
Iranian police detained more than 100 people for "disturbing public order" during the rally. IRNA said a reporter from Agence France Presse who was detained in the protests was among five people released on Saturday.
Clotilde Reiss, a French teaching assistant, was also arrested in Iran on spying charges on July 1 in connection with the post-vote unrest. She was released on bail in August but not allowed to leave the country.
The election and its aftermath have also exposed deep rifts over relations with the West and reform within the clerical leadership, already under international pressure over its nuclear program.
Washington fears Iran is seeking a nuclear bomb and has threatened more sanctions through the United Nations. Tehran says its nuclear program aims to generate electricity.
Iran's top authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's deep aversion for the West blurs any prospect of a way out of the nuclear row soon or resumption of ties with Washington, which cut relations with Iran shortly after the revolution.
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