Brother of American hiker detained in Iran speaks out

Earlier this week, one of three American hikers who had been detained in Iran since last summer was released from prison. Iranian police arrested Sarah Shourd and her two companions, Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, in July 2009 on Iran’s border with Iraq and accused the trio of espionage.

Alex Fattal, Joshua Fattal’s older brother says all three hikers are innocent and were wrongly imprisoned.

The families of the three say that they were on a tourist’s hike in the mountains of Iraq when they were arrested. The terms of Shourd’s release are unclear, but Iranian officials have reportedly extended Bauer’s and Fattal’s “pre-trial detention” for two months.