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US - Iran - interview with Nora Shourd

Iranian's kidnap charges may mean hope for detained Americans

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has raised the case of three Americans held in Iran, in response to charges by an Iranian national who claims he was abducted by the CIA. The mother of Sarah Shourd, who has been held without charge for almost a year, talks to RFI.

Tony Cross
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After Shahram Amiri claimed to have been held against his will in the US,  Clinton denied the claim and accused Iran of holding the three Americans against their will.

Sarah Shourd's mother, Nora, says she is encouraged Clinton’s mentioning her daughter, the fourth time she has done so.

“We’re hoping this bodes well for our children, that maybe it’s a staging for something else,” she told RFI. “What matters to us is that there is some kind of movement, it seems like there is. And possibly some kind of reciprocity.”

Sarah Shourd, along with her fiancé Shane Bauer and a friend, Josh Fattal, were detained on 31 July 2009, when they allegedly strayed into Iran on a hiking trip.

Nora Shourd’s life has stalled since then. She moved from California to Minnesota to be near Bauer’s mother. She came through Paris this week to try to raise awareness about her daughter.

With long grey hair, she has tired eyes. This is her first trip to Europe, but she says she probably will not see much of Paris. She’s here to get the word out about her daughter.

“A year holding these kids without any kind of crime whatsoever and no charges is just ridiculous, and people should be outraged and talking about it,” she says.

Nora Shourd went to Iran in May and was able to see her daughter, whom she says is in solitary confinement.

“When we saw her, this is what she spoke about the most. This is the hardest thing to be by herself in that cell all the time. She sees the boys once a day, but it’s 23 hours in a cell all day every day.”

All three are accused by Iran of espionage, something Nora Shourd denies.

“We know our children very well. Their lives are very transparent,” she says, insisting that her daughter is a rights activist. “She’s worked for the rights of women, all kinds of things all around the world. And in Damascus she was working for the Iraqi student refugee
group. This is not the kind of thing spies do. They’re not spies.”

She says they were just on vacation, hiking in Iraq.

“They had no intention of going into Iran. They were hiking and on vacation, and they lived in Damascus.”

Iran says they had crossed the border, a claim they have denied. An investigation by the US magazine The Nation found evidencethat they were in fact arrested across the border in Iraq.

“We don’t know exactly where they were,” says Nora Shourd. “But we know for sure they were on the Iraqi side.”

This is a serious allegation, but for Shourd, it’s not as important as getting her daughter out of this situation.

“They have been held for this long without any charges, or without any kind of legal action,” she says, adding that they have had a lawyer since December, whom they have not been able to see. “The list of rules being broken by the Iranians is growing every day.”

She says it’s hard to tell if there will be any kind of trial.

“They may possibly have to go to trial, some kind of mock trial. I hope they can just get on a plane and they can come home.”

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