Iran releases American hikers just hours after public hanging of 17-year-old boy

Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, both 29, were freed when $ 1million (£640,000) in bail was posted by Oman, a American ally that also has friendly relations with Iran.

The two were widely viewed as victims in a politically- motivated case, trapped in the diplomatic no-man’s land between Tehran and Washington and also pawns in Iran’s internal power struggle.

Their release will not only be an immense to relief to them and their long-suffering families, but also Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York today. His previous visits have been marred by strident protests over Iran’s dire human rights record. Mr Ahmadinejad will also hope the release overshadows outrage over Iran’s pre-dawn execution yesterday of a teenager convicted of killing the country’s “strongest man” in a road rage confrontation two months ago.

The 17-year-old was hanged in public from a crane before a crowd of 15,000 as he cried for his mother and begged for mercy.

Amnesty International’s Iran expert, Drewery Dyke, said: “Today we’ve seen the vagaries of Iran’s justice system. On the one hand the hikers have been released on bail, on the other there has been a hanging of a minor which is an act that flies in the face of international law.”

The Americans’ nightmare began 25 months ago when they were seized by Iranian border guards as they hiked back from a well-known beauty spot near Iran’s poorly-defined border with Iraqi Kurdistan.

With them was a third friend, Sarah Shourd, who was released last September on identical bail terms, also paid by Oman, after 410 days in solitary confinement.

Mr Bauer and Mr Fattal were sentenced last month to eight years imprisonment for espionage and illegal entry. No evidence against them has ever been published and their families and Washington have derided the charges as “ridiculous”.

The pair had languished for the past 25 months in a single small cell with one tiny window and fluorescent strip lights that were never switched off. They were allowed one brief visit from their mothers last year.

Mr Bauer, a fluent Arabic speaker and freelance journalist, is now set to marry Ms Shourd, 33, to whom he proposed in Evin prison in May last year, using an engagement ring woven from his prison towel.

Mr Ahmadinejad declared last week that he was granting Mr Fattal and Mr Bauer a “unilateral pardon” and promised they would released “in a couple of days”.

But his hardline rivals in the clerical-led judiciary attempted to humiliate him by declaring it was up to the courts to decide their fate.

Having publicly clipped the wings of their country’s president, they then allowed the Americans’ release.

Hours before the two Americans were released, Alireza Molla-Soltani, 17, was hoisted from a crane and slowly suffocated to death for fatally stabbing Rouhollah Dadashi, a two-time champion of Iran’s Strongest Men competition, in mid-July.

At his trial, the teenager said he had panicked and killed only in self-defence after the athlete had attacked him in the dark following a driving dispute.

Two friends who were with Molla-Soltani that night were sentenced to 80 lashes each.

The Islamic republic has the highest rate of executions per capita in the world, and its use of the death penalty has soared this year. Iran on Monday alone hanged 22 alleged drug traffickers, the latest of several mass executions.

Amnesty International acknowledged the “seriousness of the crime” for which Molla-Soltani was convicted, but said “hanging a minor for acting in what appears to be self-defence is wrong and legally dubious”.