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Hiker Calls Iranian Detention 'Grueling'

   VOA News 24 September 2010
   Sarah  Shourd,  one of three Americans arrested and imprisoned in Iran
   on  espionage  charges  after violating its borders, listens during an
   interview in New York, 23 Sep 2010

Photo: AP

   Sarah  Shourd,  one of three Americans arrested and imprisoned in Iran
   on  espionage  charges  after violating its borders, listens during an
   interview in New York, 23 Sep 2010

   The  American  hiker who spent more than 400 days in an Iranian prison
   is describing the experience as "relentless and grueling."
   In a U.S. television interview Friday with ABC's Good Morning America,
   Sarah  Shourd said she spent most of her jail time pacing in her small
   cell,  wringing  her  hands and waiting for the brief periods each day
   when she was allowed to see fellow hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal.
   Iranian  authorities  jailed  the  trio last year on charges of spying
   after  they  crossed  into  Iran through an unmarked border with Iraq.
   Iranian authorities freed Shourd last week but Bauer and Fattal remain
   in custody.
   In  the  interview, Shourd said she would be willing to return to Iran
   for  a  trial  if  it  would  prove  that she and the other two hikers
   committed no crime and meant no harm.  However, she added she was not
   ruling "anything in" or "anything out," at this point.
   On  Sunday,  Iranian  President  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told ABC Shourd's
   release  was a "huge humanitarian gesture," but Bauer and Fattal would
   have to face Iranian justice.
   Shourd  told  the  Associated  Press  Thursday  there were some bright
   moments during her captivity, including a marriage proposal from Bauer
   and a surprise cake on her 32nd birthday.

   Â

   Some information for this report was provided by AP.

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