American released following more than a year in Iranian detainment
Photo courtesy: U.S. Embassy, Muscat via CNN Wire Service
American Sarah Shourd, second from right, tours the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque on Saturday, Sept. 18 in Muscat, Oman. She was accompanied by her mother, her uncle and Omani guides. Shourd addressed journalists before leaving Oman for the United States. She thanked the Omani people for helping win her release from Iran.
September 19, 2010
Sarah Shourd, the American released from Iran after more than a year in detention, arrived in the United States on Sunday, said a family spokeswoman.
Samantha Topping, who has spoken to the media on behalf of the families of Shourd and two other Americans held in Iran, said Shourd and her mother arrived at Dulles International Airport outside Washington.
“Sarah Shourd and her mother Nora arrived in the United States shortly before 6:30 a.m. ET today on a U.S. commercial flight from Dubai to Dulles International Airport,” Topping said a statement issued by on behalf of Shourd’s family, as well as the families of the other detained Americans, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal.
Shourd had been expected to arrive at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and hold a news conference in New York City later Sunday. But flights to New York were booked because of travelers coming for this week’s meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, the statement said.
“Sarah and Nora were accompanied on the flight by Sarah’s maternal uncle, Mike Sandys, who was with them while they were in Muscat, Oman, following Sarah’s release from detention,” the statement said.
Shourd and her mother were “making their way” to New York along with Fattal’s brother, Alex. They plan to speak to the media at 3 p.m. ET, along with Cindy Hickey, Bauer’s mother, and Fattal’s mother, Laura Fattal.
Shourd, Bauer and Fattal were arrested in 2009 after they allegedly strayed across an unmarked border into Iran while hiking in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who this week described the release of Shourd as a humanitarian gesture, said in an interview broadcast Sunday that the United States should now release eight Iranians being held in America.
However, Ahmadinejad told the ABC program “This Week” that his ability to free Bauer and Fattal was limited, and that they will have to face Iranian justice for illegally entering his country.
“I will make a recommendation … but at the end of the day, they violated the law,” Ahmadinejad said in translated remarks.
On the same program, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed relief for Shourd’s release and called for Iran to also release Bauer and Fattal.
