Iran foreign minister says hopes US hikers will be freed
Iran's foreign minister said on Saturday he hoped two Americans jailed for more than a year on spying charges would be freed, the most positive signal yet that their ordeal may soon end. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal are awaiting a verdict from what was supposed to have been the last day of their trial last Sunday. They pleaded not guilty to spying charges after they were arrested on July 31, 2009 near Iran's border with Iraq.
"The judicial case of these American nationals is following its course. We hope their trial will advance in a way that would lead to their freedom," Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told a news conference in Tehran, according to the students' news agency ISNA. (Reuters)
