CASPER
THE FRIENDLY GHOST
EHRAN, Iran – Iran has set a Feb. 6 trial date for three Americans arrested more than a year ago along the Iraqi border and charged with spying, their lawyer said Sunday.
The trial was to have started on Nov. 6, but authorities said they delayed it because one of the Americans, who was freed on bail, had not been summoned to return to the country to appear in court.
The case is among the many points of confrontation between Iran and the United States, which has repeatedly appealed for the Americans to be released.
Their lawyer, Masoud Shafiei, said he received an official notification Sunday of the new trial date.
Sarah Shourd was freed in September and returned to the United States. Her fiance, Shane Bauer, and their friend Josh Fattal remain in prison.
Shourd and their families have denied they did anything wrong. After her release, Shourd said they were hiking in a scenic and relatively peaceful part of northern Iraq and inadvertently crossed an unmarked border with Iran when they were arrested in July 2009.