OneWorld.net (U.S.)

WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (OneWorld.net) - The director of the media organization Shane Bauer writes for has called on Iran to "show compassion and leniency," corroborating assertions that the U.S. journalist and his friends were simply enjoying a vacation in July when they apparently strayed onto Iranian soil and were detained.

News reports out of Tehran Monday indicated that Bauer and his two companions, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal, have now been accused of espionage by Iranian authorities, a charge which can carry the death penalty.

Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had previously directed his country's courts to show "maximum possible leniency" in the case. In September Ahmadinejad told NBC news that the threesome's release might be linked to the release of Iranian diplomats he said were being held by U.S. forces in Iraq.

Bauer has written from the Middle East for New America Media (NAM), The Nation, Mother Jones, and other news outlets in the United States. A fluent Arabic speaker living in Damascus, Syria, his stories also appeared in OneWorld.net's coverage of the Israeli attacks on Gaza in January 2009.

NAM's executive editor and director Sandy Close expressed "deep concern" Monday in a statement hoping to clarify the nature of Bauer's trip near the Iranian border.

Shane Bauer. © ShaneBauer.net"The simple fact is that three friends went hiking and may have strayed across the Iranian border by mistake," Close said. "Shane Bauer is a gifted writer and photographer whose regular freelance reporting for NAM from the Middle East has shed much-needed light on events in the Arab world. He had offered to report for us on the elections in Iraqi Kurdistan during his trip to the region, on what was first and foremost a vacation with friends," Close added.

In a letter to Ahmadinejad published in Mother Jones last week, a fourth member of Bauer's group, Shon Meckfessel, offered to travel to Tehran to testify to his friends' character and intentions. Meckfessel said he would undoubtedly be detained with them right now had he not fallen ill and chosen to stay in the hotel the day of their scheduled hiking trip to a waterfall near the Iraq-Iran border. 

The four had been taking a short vacation to a region in northern Iraq they had been told by friends was "beautiful, peaceful, and safe," according to Meckfessel.

"By continuing to deprive Shane, Sarah, and Josh of their liberty, Iran is working against some of the very causes it supports," Meckfessel wrote to Ahmadinejad, explaining that each of his friends "has a long and public record of contesting injustice in the world and addressing some of the inequities between rich and poor which you have spoken about through their humanitarian work in their own country and overseas."

Meckfessel added that he, Bauer, and Shourd all recently traveled to an Israeli hospital to visit a friend who was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier after attending a non-violent protest in support of Palestinian rights. "We wanted to show solidarity with a dear friend whose support for Palestinian rights has been acknowledged in the Iranian media, throughout the Middle East, and beyond," Meckfessel said.

In an August editorial on the New America Media Web site, Meckfessel explained how the group ended up hiking in Kurdish Iraq along border with Iran. "While going there might seem strange to Americans, the Kurdish territory is actually very beautiful and quite safe. Since the Kurds gained autonomy in 1992, no American has ever been harmed there. The city of Sulaimania is increasingly popular with tourists, and a friend of ours told us it was the most beautiful area he'd ever seen.

Meckfessel went on to explain that, as there are no guidebooks for the area, they relied on advice from local people about where to experience the best of the region's scenery, all of whom directed them to the Ahmed Awa waterfall. Photos on the wall of their hotel showed other tourists at the waterfall. It was not on the map they had printed out, and no one mentioned it was near the Iranian border.

"Ahmed Awa seemed the clear choice for appreciating the stunning natural beauty around Sulaimania, far from any sort of risk," explained Meckfessel. "However, it may have been unclear to the people who encouraged us to visit Ahmed Awa that we intended to go hiking in the area, rather than simply visiting the waterfall."

Iranian prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said a ruling on the case "will be given in the not distant future," the Reuters news agency reported Monday, citing the Iranian state-controlled news agency IRNA.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also called for the release of the three Americans on Monday, saying the United States would continue to press their case through the Swiss diplomats that represent U.S. interests in Tehran since the United States does not have official diplomatic relations with Iran.

» OneWorld TV: Sandy Close Describes Bauer 'The Explorer'

» OneWorld TV: Bauer Reports from Iraq for Democracy Now!

» Subscribe to OneWorld's News Updates and Digests

More from OneWorld:

» After Fort Hood: Count All the Dead

» Obama Urged to Find Climate Money

» Water Concerns 1 Month After Indonesia Quake

» Typhoon Exposes Illegal Logging in Vietnam