Iran Pulls President's Plan To Free US Woman
11:48am Saturday September 11, 2010
Plans to free a US woman who has spent a year in an Iranian jail have suddenly been scrapped despite backing from the country's president.
Sarah Shourd has been held in solitary confinement and denied medical treatment
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad requested Sarah Shourd be set free as an act of clemency at the end of the holy month of Ramadan, according to state media. But with just hours to go judiciary officials blocked the 31-year-old's release.
They demanded she must stand trial before an amnesty could be granted. Ms Shourd and fellow Americans Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal are accused of illegally crossing the border between Iraq and Iran and spying in July 2009.
Their families say the three were hiking in scenic northern Iraq and if they crossed the border, they did so unwittingly.
Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal pictured during a brief release
Ms Shourd has been held in solitary confinement and according to her mother has been denied treatment for a lump on her breast and precancerous cervical cells. On several occasions judiciary officials said the Americans trial was due to begin, but few details have been made public including whether they were formally charged.
In May, Iran temporarily released them from Tehran's Evin prison for an emotional reunion with their mothers at a hotel. President Ahmadinejad and other officials have in the past suggested they could be swapped for Iranians they say are being held in the US. However, on Friday state media reported Mr Ahmadinejad had secured Shourd's release because of the "special viewpoint of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the dignity of women".
Mothers of three Americans: Laura Fattal, Cindy Hickey and Nora Shourd
Reporters were invited to see Ms Shourd set free but later state news agency IRNA reported the event had been postponed. Tehran's chief prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, said the release could not take place because "judicial procedures have not been completed", according to the semi-official ILNA news agency. Last year, the brother of Mr Ahmadinejad's main conservative rival took over as head of the powerful judiciary, reducing the president's influence there. Commentators believe the quarrels over Ms Shourd's release highlight the internal fissures in Iran's power structure.
