posted at abcnews dot-com as of Tuesday September 14 morning
Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans who have been held in Iran for 14 months on accusations of espionage, has been released, ABC News has confirmed today.
Masoud Shafie, an attorney for the Americans, confirmed Shourd's release to ABC News. Shafie said the Swiss ambassador will be taking Shourd from the Tehran prison to the airport. Swiss officials have been representing U.S. interests in the case since the U.S. government does not have diplomatic relations with Iran.
Iranian officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had announced last week that Shourd would be released on Sept. 11.
Officials in Iran's judiciary canceled those plans Friday, but reinstated them Sunday on the condition that her family post $500,000 bail, according to an Iranian prosecutor who spoke to Iran's IRNA news agency. It is unclear if the bail has been paid.
A senior U.S. official familiar with the negotiations told ABC News Monday that the U.S. government would not be contributing any cash for Shourd's release.
Shourd, 32, was detained along with her traveling companions, fiance Shane Bauer and friend Josh Fattal, in July 2009, when the trio of hikers was picked up after allegedly crossing into Iran from Iraq and imprisoned under accusations of espionage. No formal charges have been filed and the mothers of the hikers claim that if they entered Iran at all, they did so by accident.
Conditions of Shourd's bail do not prevent her from leaving Iran, but she would still face trial for allegedly illegally crossing Iran's border. Bauer and Fattal will remain in Iranian custody, according to Iranian prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi.
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