Lawyer: Iran to free U.S. hikers

Updated at 9:25 a.m. Eastern.

The Iranian lawyer for two U.S. hikers imprisoned in the Islamic Republic for two years on charges of entering the nation illegally tells CBS News the paperwork to see them released on bail has been signed off, and they will be out of prison Wednesday.

Masoud Shafiei says the bail document was signed Wednesday by a third judge, whose vacation had delayed the process for Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal. The men have spent 782 days in prison, cut off from their families, friends and all contact with the outside world.

Shafiei said the last remaining hurdle - a "minor" technical hurdle involving the transfer of $1 million in bail money to the correct account in Tehran - was resolved, and he was on his way to Tehran's notorious Evin prison, where Fattal and Bauer have been held, to pick them up.

"Maybe five minutes, maybe three hours. I have done my job," Shafiei told Reuters when asked when the hikers would be freed.

A car carrying two Omani diplomats arrived at the prison amid reports that the Arab nation's government had arranged the bail payment. The Omani delegation, plus the Swiss Ambassador to Iran and Shafiei, entered the prison not long after. The Omanis and the Swiss Ambassador then left, but there was no sign of Shafiei or the hikers.

The hikers' families, who have been glued to the news coverage of the process unfolding in Tehran, say they believe the men will be freed Wednesday, and they're "super excited" about the prospect.

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The process of actually getting them out of jail could take minutes or hours, and CBS News' Seyed Bathaei says it is still possible Iran's justice ministry or prison officials will try to complicate the release with any number of procedural delays - but all signs indicated the necessary hoops had been jumped through, and the men's release was imminent.

"Frankly, until our hikers are out of Iran and back on U.S. soil, it would be premature to celebrate," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday morning on "The Early Show", adding that American officials remained hopeful the men would be free in the near future.

Bathaei says, given past experience, the men would likely head from Evin straight to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran - which has looked after Washington's interests in Iran since official diplomatic ties with the U.S. were severed.

A Swiss Embassy convoy arrived at Evin prison Wednesday morning, but the ambassdor was made to wait outside the compound until Shafiei arrived with the signed bail documents.

Bauer and Fattal could be on a plane at Tehran International airport, headed to an as-of-yet unclear destination outside the country, later Wednesday. It is likely they will head first to Oman.

Fattal and Bauer were arrested along with their friend Sarah Shourd when they allegedly crossed the poorly marked border between an Iraqi area of natural beauty, and Iran.

Shourd was released in September 2010 on $500,000 bail and returned to the United States. Shourd's case is officially still open in Iran, but she has campaigned vigorously for her friends' release since returning to the U.S.

All three were initially accused of being U.S. spies, but their detention was used largely as a bargaining chip by the Iranian regime in it's ongoing standoff with the United States government over the Republic's nuclear aspirations.

"The legal process regarding the hikers was never a normal one," prominent Iranian attorney Muhammad Mustafaei, who has not been involved in the men's case, told CBS News last week. "They were actually taken as hostages. They were used by the Supreme Leader because of the hostility that exists between Iran and the U.S."

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in New York this week for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, was widely seen as intent on securing the hikers' released to coincide with his time on U.S. soil.

But Ahmadinejad's own tense relations with the hardline Muslim clerics who actually hold all the power in Iran has led to serveral false-starts for the hikers' release.

[9bear]

And what did we learn from this exercise?

[ticobird]

Assigning bail in order to allow someone out of jail in the western sense implies they will return for a trial. I understand the trial has already been conducted and the three individuals found guilty of "something". I do not understand this new use of the term "bail." Are these two men required to return for another trial? If so, when do the accusations stop? Being more realistic, I suppose they have no intention returning to Iran for any reason in order to collect their bail. Having said that, I think the news media is not doing their job in not reporting who provided the bail money. After all, $1,000,000 is not easy to put together or else it would have been arranged earlier.

[calypsoman9]

These 2 (actually 3) should have known that the Iranian regime is an unstable and unpredictable one and threading so close to the Iraq-Iran border was a dangerous and risky venture. I hate for people to be jailed for stupidity but these three deserve some incarceration time for their recklessness and arrogance. They had so many people working on freeing them when the resources could have been better used on other pressing matters.

[dickkahrs]

What's the difference between the Iranian clerics' demands for bail and the Somali pirates' demands for ransom?

[cbsblogger]

Who did they work for and who paid their bail? Mossad, CIA, etc? Hopefully it wasn't paid by US taxpayers unless we get a cut from the movie proceeds. But how can they make a movie based on stupid?

[Justsaying01776]

I'm surprised they didn't hold out for an arms payoff from one of the Republican presidential candidates. Hey, it worked when Ronald Reagan ran. The mullahs must be baffled about why they haven't heard from Tricky Rick Perry.

[jtdev1]

I hope Iran frees them.

I also hope the USA locks them up for years for this stupid "adventure" of theirs.

[nolalou]

sure, lets punish the victims even more! What kind of heartless moron are you?

[bramps1]

They should be given a mandatory assignment of map reading and then incarcerated. This whole situation doesn't pass the smell test for me. Why would some Arab country pay for their ransom?? Picture yourself hiking in the hills of the Rockies and being kidnapped. Who would pay a million dollar ransom to release you??? Assuming your family is an ordinary one!!

[sam_38]

Why are there so many rude comments? They WERE hiking. They were not in Iran but in Iraq when Iran took them hostage. We should celebrate the fact that they will soon be free. Iran illegally and unfairly kept them in prison for two years. And Iran wonders why other countries don't like them? (Well, this and the nuclear weapons and the arming terrorists and destabilization of other countries. Oh, and the extreme racial/cultural superiority complex).

[Goofer-Buddy]

Friday's Headline will read:

Hiker's Lawyer captured wondering around... Bail set at 5 million dollars.

[smithejm]

Did I miss it in the article? Who is paying the bail? I have little sympathy for people like this who go to a war zone to "hike" and put US in untenable position of having to crawl before US hating crazies. I hope these "students" have learned something and the cost was paid by mommy and daddy.