Attorney: Iranian court to rule within week in American hikers' case

From Shirzad Bozorgmehr, CNN

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Shane Bauer, left, and Josh Fattal have been detained since their arrest during a 2009 hiking trip near the Iranian border.

An Iranian court is scheduled to issue a verdict within a week in the case of a group of American hikers detained in Iran, the hikers' lawyer said Sunday.

Attorney Masoud Shafiei, who represents Josh Fattal, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd, argued Sunday that his clients were innocent of charges of illegal entry and spying. Shourd was released last year due to medical reasons.

"We can still appeal this decision if we disagree with it. But I am hoping for the best," he said after Sunday's hearing, which was the last court proceeding in their trial."The trial of Joshua Fattal, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd has concluded and a verdict is expected within the coming week," U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.

"We have repeatedly called for the release of Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, who have now been held in Iran's Evin prison for two years. Shane and Josh have been imprisoned too long, and it is time to reunite them with their families."

The Swiss are working to gain further information, Toner said. Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Iran in the absence of diplomatic ties between the two nations.

The hearing -- which the hikers' families said lasted about four hours -- came two years to the day after the hikers' arrest near the country's border with Iraq.

Fattal and Bauer have been in Iranian custody since then. Shourd was released in September 2010 for medical reasons, returning to the United States after 410 days of solitary confinement. She remains a defendant in the case, but was not required to appear in court Sunday.

Fattal and Bauer appeared in court Sunday. They looked good and seemed upbeat, Shafiei said.

The two men could be freed within a week of a court order, he said.

If the court reaches a guilty verdict, Shafiei said the time the two have spent in Iranian custody is enough.

"I believe that even if the court finds my clients guilty, the two years that they have already served in prison would be considered as their sentence and they would be released," he said.

"My clients should not be considered spies, because they lack the characteristics and backgrounds of spies," he said.

Fattal and Bauer's families issued a statement saying, "We are pleased that today's hearing was the final session in the case and now hope for an outcome that will bring freedom for Shane and Josh.

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