The mothers of three young US citizens detained in Iran called for their “inhumane” imprisonment to end this month

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July 15, 2010

NEW YORK — The mothers of three young US citizens detained in Iran called Thursday for their “inhumane” imprisonment to end before the first anniversary of their arrest later this month.

“We call on you to end their unjust and arbitrary detention before the one-year anniversary of their arrest on July 31,” the mothers of the trio said in a letter to the head of Iran’s judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani.

“Our children’s imprisonment in the absence of any certainty as to their fate or to the specific allegations against them is unlawful and inhumane.”

Shane Bauer, 27, Sarah Shourd, 31, and Josh Fattal, 27 were picked up July 31, 2009, near the Iraqi-Iranian border during what they say was a hiking holiday.

Iranian officials have made references to the possibility of trying them for espionage, but no official charges have been announced, and the affair has become an added irritant to already tense US-Iranian relations.

The mothers — Cindy Hickey, Nora Shourd and Laura Fattal — were allowed to meet with their children in a visit in May.

However, a longed-for breakthrough never materialized, they said.

“We were grateful for the opportunity,” they wrote to Larijani, “but nothing has happened since then.”

They said that Sarah Shourd was in solitary confinement and that “her continued isolation will do lasting damage to her mental and physical wellbeing.”

The lawyer representing the detainees has been denied access to them “in violation of all due process,” they charged. “Our children have been able to telephone their families just once in almost a year and not at all since our visit.”