Iran Postpones Trial for U.S. Hikers

Los Angeles Times reports:

Trial has been delayed again for two Americans detained in Iran for more than 21 months after being detained during a hiking trek along the Iran-Iraq border.

According to their lawyer, neither Shane Bauer, a freelance journalist who has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, nor his pal Joshua Fattal, were even brought to the courtroom on Wednesday, which was the next scheduled hearing in their ongoing trial on security charges.

"The hikers were not fetched from the jail to court," said Masoud Shafii, their Tehran attorney, who said he submitted a complaint to the court.

Authorities offered no explanation for the delay. Neither did they announce a new trial date. They're being held inside Tehran's infamous Evin Prison as they face charges of espionage and trespassing.

The two 28-year-olds, along with Bauer's fiancee Sarah Shourd, were arrested and jailed by Iranian authorities on July 31, 2009, along the unmarked, mountainous border separating western Iran from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq. Shourd was released in September on $500,000 bail.

Diplomats and journalists waited for more than four hours in front of the court. An official from the Swiss Embassy, which represents U.S. interests in Iran in the absence of formal relations between the two countries, said a request to attend any court session had been rejected. ...