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Sen Boxer intervenes for three hikers jailed in Iran
This undated photo provided August 20, 2009 by the Shourd family shows Sarah Shourd, one of three American hikers being held in Iran. Relatives and friends of Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal have launched www.freethehikers.org to inform the public of efforts to free the three after Iran took them into custody on July 31, 2009 as they were hiking in Kurdistan, near the Iranian border.
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Sen Boxer intervenes for three hikers jailed in Iran
Sen Boxer intervenes for three hikers jailed in Iran
A California mother today made a videotaped appeal to Iran’s supreme leader for the release of her daughter and two friends.
The three hikers strayed across the Iran-Iraq border this summer — and have been behind bars ever since.
Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer is also pushing for the trio’s release.
Boxer was on the phone this week with the Iranian Ambassador to the UN Mohammad Khazaee. She asked the ambassador to allow the three detained Americans to call their families as soon as possible.
And because the US has no formal diplomatic relations with Iran, she also asked that a representative of the Swiss government be given access to the hikers.
Boxer told the Iranian ambassador the families are “devastated” by the situation and it was all just a terrible mistake.
"These are young people who got lost," she says. "And this is wrong. What they’re doing is just totally wrong."
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Boxer co-sponsored a resolution encouraging Iran to grant consular access and allow the trio to phone home. It was passed by both the House and Senate.
This week, Iran’s foreign minister said the three Americans would be “tried by Iran’s judiciary.”
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