Sarah Shourd called for espionage trial in Iran on Feb. 6

Three Americans arrested in Iran in 2009 — Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal — will stand trial on Feb. 6, Iran announced Monday.

The three were arrested on July 31, 2009, by Iranian border guards after allegedly entering Iranian territory from Iraq’s Kurdistan region. They have been charged with illegal entry and espionage.

Shourd was released on bail of $500,000 on Sept. 14, 2010, and returned to the United States. Her fiance Shane Bauer and their friend Josh Fattal remain in prison in Tehran.

Speaking at a press conference in Tehran, Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said a court had summoned Shourd to return and stand trial or forfeit bail, the Tehran Times reported.

Shourd, from Oakland, Calif., has not disclosed any plans to return for trial. According to the Associated Press, she did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Monday. Samantha Topping, a publicist for the Americans' families, said they were aware of the reports but had no plans for immediate comment.

The three Americans are graduates of the University of California at Berkeley. Shourd and Bauer had been living together in Damascus, Syria, where Bauer was working as a freelance journalist and Shourd as an English teacher, according to the Associated Press. Fattal, an environmental activist, went to visit them in July 2009.

Bauer is a native of Onamia, Minn., and Fattal grew up in Pennsylvania.

The United States has said there is no basis for a trial and has demanded that Bauer and Fattal be released on humanitarian grounds. Shourd has said the trio were hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan and did not intentionally stray over the border with Iran.

On Monday a group of eight international figures, including Noam Chomsky, actor Sean Penn and South African anti-apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu, called for Iran to release the two men.

"The time for Shane and Josh's freedom is overdue and we implore you to allow them to go free and return to their families," the group said in a statement.

The judge in case will decide whether the trial session is opened to the media, according to the Tehran Times.