TEHRAN – US citizens Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, detained in Iran for more than two years, have been convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in jail, Iranian state TV reported.
“In connection with illegal entry into Iranian territory each was given three years in jail and in connection with the charge of cooperating with American intelligence service, each was given five years imprisonment ,” the IRINN website said. Bauer and Fattal were arrested on July 31, 2009 near Iran’s border with Iraq, along with a third American, Sarah Shourd, who was freed on $500,000 bail in September 2010 and returned home.
The trio said they were hiking in the mountains of northern Iraq and, if they crossed the unmarked border into Iran, it was only by mistake.
The affair has compounded tension between the two countries, which have had no diplomatic relations since the storming of the US embassy after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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