Update: Mothers release letter to Ahmadinejad
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AHMADINEJAD IN TEHRAN
Open Letter to Iranian Leader Issued on Day 200 of Detention of
Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal
The mothers of Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal – the three
American hikers held in Iran – released the following open letter to
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today, on Day 200 of their children’s
detention.
February 15, 2010
Dear President Ahmadinejad,
On January 6, we applied for visas to visit the Islamic Republic of
Iran in the hope of seeing our children in Evin Prison. We
respectfully ask to meet with you when we visit Tehran and appeal to
you to intervene to expedite the approval of our visa request. We
would be honored to tell you in person who our children are and why
they do not deserve to continue to be held in detention without any
contact with the outside world.
Shane, Sarah and Josh have now been detained for 200 days. During
that time, they have not been allowed to make a single telephone call
to us or write us one letter. For more than three months we have had
no independent information about our children’s physical health or
their state of mind. Their most recent consular visit from Swiss
diplomats was on October 29. We asked an Iranian lawyer, Mr. Masoud
Shafii, to represent our children out of respect for the Iranian
judicial process, but he has been refused access to them.
We struggle to understand why our children have been denied any
contact with us. We cannot explain why for more than six months Iran
has not found it in its heart to demonstrate magnanimity towards our
children – young travelers whose only mistake appears to have been to
lose their way on a hiking vacation. So we quote here the words of
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who earlier this month urged the
Iranian authorities to release our children:
[I]t is difficult to escape the conclusion that [Shane, Sarah and
Josh] continue to be held because they are Americans and not for any
legal reason. I urge the Iranian authorities not to deny them their
freedom in order to express their discontent with the United States.
Nations have a right to disagree but their citizens should not be made
to pay the price of their differences.
You too are a parent, Mr. President. Surely you understand the depth
of our distress, and the hopelessness we feel after appealing to you
time and again to show our children the compassion they deserve,
irrespective of the land of their birth. We hope you will look
favorably on our request this time and restore our faith in human
kindness.
Sincerely – Cindy Hickey, Norah Shourd and Laura Fattal