Ahmadinejad Hints at Possible Prisoner Exchange for 3 U.S. Hikers; State Department: "We're Not Interested"

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 3, 2010 (IPS) -- Six months after Iranian authorities arrested three U.S. citizens who mistakenly crossed the unmarked border between Iran and Iraq, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that Iran could be willing to exchange them for Iranians imprisoned in the United States.

In an interview with Iran's state television, Ahmadinejad said, "We are having talks to have an exchange if it is possible."

He did not specify any Iranian prisoners by name. But he added that the United States has "abducted" Iranian citizens from other countries and even "pressured other countries to arrest many of our citizens."

The U.S. State Department quickly dismissed the overture.

"We're not interested in a swap per se," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters Wednesday. "We are interested in resolving the cases of our citizens."

On Jul. 31, 2009, Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were hiking near the Ahmed Awa waterfall in Iraqi Kurdistan when news reports say they mistakenly crossed the unmarked border into Iran. They have been detained since, and have had no contact with their families.

In November last year, five British citizens, whose yacht had drifted into Iranian waters, were detained but released after a week. Three young Belgians who were on vacation in Iran were also detained for three months, then released on bail into the care of the Belgian embassy and allowed to leave Iran in late December.

But the three U.S. citizens have been in detention for six months without access to their families or their Iranian lawyer, Masoud Shafie, who accepted the case on behalf of their families in December.

Ahmadinejad's remarks regarding a possible exchange did not come as a particular surprise.

On Jan. 7, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of Iran's Parliamentary Commission on National Security and Foreign Policy, implied that the continued detention of the hikers was retaliation for the arrests of five Iranian diplomats by U.S. forces in 2007 in a raid of Iran's consulate in Arbil, northern Iraq.

"The U.S. violated the Vienna Conventions and international regulations by arresting Iranian diplomats and keeping them in prison for a long time," Mehr news agency quoted Boroujerdi as saying.

"So the U.S. should not rush for the release of the three hikers," Boroujerdi said.

Massoud Shafie, the attorney for the three U.S. citizens, told IPS that his efforts to gain access to his clients have failed and nobody in authority appears willing to do anything for the case.

"My clients have been disconnected from the outside world for more than six months. They should be able to call their parents and lawyers," Shafie said in a telephone interview from Tehran.

"The judiciary should hold a trial immediately and if the investigation is not over yet, the authorities should release them on bail and let them stay at the Swiss embassy - the United States' interests section in Tehran," he told IPS.

Shafie said that the authorities have told him that the investigation is not over and hence he would not be able to see his clients. Over the past two months, judiciary officials announced, multiple times, that the hikers would be tried soon, but they have not set any date.

Last month, Tehran's prosecutor granted Shafie permission to visit his clients in prison. Yet, Shafie says he has not been able to exercise this permission due to the judiciary's bureaucracy and lack of political will.

"I have permission from the prosecutor but the employees at his office postpone this visit over and over again. They act rudely and have not allowed me to read the cases and understand the charges against them, which is necessary in order for me to be able to write my defence bill," said Shafie. "These individuals' families are seriously concerned about them and they have no idea what is happening to them in prison."