Oakland Vigil Calls For Release Of Two Hikers Still Held In Iran

OAKLAND (KCBS) - Sarah Shourd, recently freed from an Iranian prison after more than a year, has launched a campaign pressing Tehran to free her fiancé and their mutual friend, both still held on suspicion of espionage.

The Free All Three Campaign is the most public effort yet to secure the release of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, detained with Shourd 15 months ago as they hiked along a waterfall popular with Kurds near an area where Iran's border with the Kurdistan region of Iraq is poorly marked.

KCBS' Margie Shafer Reports:

"As the world knows, I'm only one-third free," Shourd said Wednesday at a rally near Lake Merritt meant to coincide with similar demonstrations around the country.

Photographs of banners that read "Free All Three" unfurled during those vigils are being collected for display on the Website freethehikers.org and on Facebook.

The State Department recently posted a Twitter message urging Iran to free the two men.

Shourd said the fate of Bauer and Fattal has dominated her life since she was freed Sept. 14 as part of a deal brokered with Oman. The men's trial scheduled for Nov. 6 has been postponed.

"I'm really hoping that a compassionate release can happen without a trial," she said.

Since their capture on July 31, 2009, the hikers and their families have steadfastly denied the allegations of spying. Shourd has also refuted an account of their capture found in a U.S. Army document posted online by Wikileaks.org.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Shourd said uniformed guards gestured for the three to walk towards them and then later indicated with gestures where the border between the two countries was located.

Shourd told the newspaper the three did not realize how close to the border the waterfall they were visiting actually is.

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