Free the Hikers. Maybe.

Hello readers! As my first post, I was hoping to start off with a happy news story, something that would make you all believe that the good in the world is still dominating over the bad. So, I did some research on the Free the Hikers story. Most of you probably know of Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, and Josh Fattal, but if you have been living under a rock or don't have time for humanitarian news stories, here is a quick summary of what happened:

                       Three Americans (named above) decided to go hiking in a safe area in Iraq Kurdistan, but accidentally wandered off the path into Iran on July 31, 2009. There, they were detained and accused of illegal entry and espionage. Sarah Shourd was released September 14, 2010 "on humanitarian grounds", but the United States had to pay a 500,000 dollar bail. The two men are still in custody and were given a trial, which just last month sentenced them to eight years in prison each.

Then the story starts to really heat up. Their lawyer made an appeal, and the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and other foreign leaders/support groups have been trying to convince the judiciaries to allow an early release with the payment of a one million dollar bail for the two hikers. Then, good news is heard at last! Ahmadinejad announces that the men will be released within days on the 13th of this month. Hurrah! Humanitarian issues trump the politics of it all! 

But. You had to know there was a but. It is now the 19th. They haven't been released. The hiker's families and friends are all wondering what the holdup is. And it all has to do with politics. In Iran, there is a struggle between the ruling clerics and the president, and major new sources have been inferring that the trial's miscommunication could show this power struggle. The clerics may be merely showing their own power by drawing out this trial, just because they know that Ahmadinejad is trying to expedite this process. Ahmadinajad wanted to have the hikers coming home by the time he himself traveled to the United States, later in the week.

The trial also may be drawn out because of the foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi’s own agenda. Mentioning Iranian people in our own custody, he suggested that we as Americans show “good will” and release those that the Iranians believe are being held arbitrarily and illegally. The United States seems to be non-responsive to this suggestion, to my knowledge. Communication and negotiation has been stunted between The United States and Iran since April 7, 1980, when they broke diplomatic relations over the 1979 hostage crisis. The hiker incident causes even more stress on the Iran-United States relation.

These inferences are overshadowing thoughts; the trial is currently being delayed by a judiciary who went on vacation when the bail papers needed to be signed. He is expected to be back in town this Tuesday, but there is speculation that the decision to allow the bail is not finalized. The best the public officials can tell us is that the hikers will hopefully be released in the “near future”.  The lack of definite answers is not very comforting, and is putting the family of the hikers on an emotional roller-coaster. This is a humanitarian issue. It should be dealt with as such. These hikers did nothing illegal, and it is not fair to imprison them for so long without a trial, and then after the trial, to prolong the bail arrangements. The trial is obviously being influenced in multiple ways by political forces, in ways that it shouldn’t. My love and prayers go out to the families of the hikers and to the hikers themselves. I'm sorry that my happy story has resulted into a low of the news world this week. 

For more information, go to www.freethehikers.org.   

Sincerely Sydney