Released Hiker: We Were Led Into Iran

Sarah Shourd says WikiLeaks has story wrong; Iran aims to postpone trial
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 1, 2010 11:43 AM CDT
Released Hiker: We Were Led Into Iran
In this May 21, 2010 file photo, American hikers Shane Bauer, left, Josh Fattal, center, and Sarah Shourd are shown in Tehran.   (AP Photo/Press TV)

The three American hikers detained by Iran weren’t captured in Iraq, says Sarah Shourd: They were beckoned over the border by an armed soldier, she tells the New York Times in an effort to set the WikiLeaks version of the story straight. “We did not actually enter Iran until he gestured to us. We were confused and worried and wanted to go back." In Shourd's fullest account of her ordeal to date, she goes into detail about their fateful overnight camping trip, describing "scores of campfires" near the waterfall they were hiking to—which abutted Iran.

“I think we were extremely unlucky,” says Shourd. “I guess I never believed there would be so many hundreds of people close to a border.” Her interview with the Times comes ahead of a court date for her fellow hikers, which was set for Saturday but has been delayed by Iran until Shourd “can return to Iran or,” if she refuses, her case can “be dealt with differently,” said an Iranian official. But her lawyer says the trial should go forward; neither he nor Shourd, he tells Reuters, were notified of the change.
(More hikers stories.)

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