Imprisoned U.S. Hikers Phone Home From Iran

The families of two Americans held in Iran say the two men called their families over the weekend.

Cindy Hickey said Monday her cell phone rang early Saturday with a call from her son, Shane Bauer.

His cellmate, Josh Fattal, also called his family Saturday.

Both calls lasted about five minutes. Hickey says Bauer sounded "strong but frustrated."

Hickey, of Pine City, Minn., said Bauer and Fattal have no details about the case against them.

Iran accuses Bauer, Fattal and Bauer's fiancee Sarah Shourd of espionage after they were arrested near the country's border with Iraq in July 2009 during what their families said was an innocent hiking trip.

Shourd told The New York Times that the three stepped off an unmarked dirt road and inadvertently crossed from Iraq only because a border guard of unknown nationality gestured for them to approach.

Initially, Iran accused them only of illegally crossing the border. Later, the espionage charges were added, but authorities have given few details to support the accusations.

Tehran's chief prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, said in September that the Americans had "equipment and documents and received training." He did not elaborate.

"They did not come to Iraq and Iran for entertainment," Dowlatabadi was quoted as saying then by the official IRNA news agency.

Iran released Shourd on medical grounds in September.

A trial in Iran is scheduled for Feb. 6. The trial was to have started on Nov. 6, but authorities said they delayed it because Shourd, who was freed on bail, had not been summoned to return to the country to appear in court.

The three Americans are graduates of the University of California at Berkeley. Shourd and Bauer had been living together in Damascus, Syria, where Bauer was working as a freelance journalist and Shourd as an English teacher. Fattal, an environmental activist, went to visit them in July 2009.

Bauer is a native of Onamia, Minnesota, and Fattal grew up in Pennsylvania.