Americans accused of spying in Iran should be put on trial, minister says

Bloomberg: Two Americans charged with illegally entering Iran and espionage should be tried, Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi said.

Bloomberg

By Caroline Alexander

Two Americans charged with illegally entering Iran and espionage should be tried, Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi said.

“There are documents and evidence about these American detainees, which have been handed over to the judicial system in order to decide,” Moslehi was quoted today by the official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying.

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were detained in July 2009 with a third U.S. citizen, Sarah Shourd, when they crossed into Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan. The Obama administration says the three were hikers who mistakenly wandered into Iran. Shourd was granted clemency and left Iran Sept. 14.

Two other Westerners held by Iran, Germans accused of posing as reporters to illegally gather information on a woman sentenced to death by stoning, have admitted breaking the law, state-run Press TV cited Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei as saying without providing details on the next step that authorities will take in their case.