CNN | October 24, 2010
By CNN Wire Staff
(CNN) — Two American hikers held by Iran for more than a year will stand trial before an Iranian court next month, the country’s official news agency reported Saturday.
The Americans will appear before Revolution Court on November 6, the Islamic Republic News Agency said, citing the hikers’ lawyer, Massoud Shafee.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the mother of one of the hikers had said Tuesday that the Americans’ lawyer had recently reported that the trial would begin November 6.
Hikers Josh Fattal, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd were arrested after Iran says they crossed into the country in July 2009.
They had been near the unmarked border separating Iran from Iraq’s Kurdistan region. The hikers described themselves as tourists. Tehran contends they are spies.
Shourd was released on humanitarian grounds in September, but Bauer and Fattal remain in Tehran’s Evin Prison on accusations of spying and entering the country illegally.
A classified U.S. field report that was among 400,000 documents released Friday by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks appears to lend credence to claims that Iran crossed the Iraqi border to arrest the Americans.