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| Iran should seek concession in return for release of U.S. citizens: MP |
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 TEHRAN – MP Parviz Sorouri says releasing the two U.S. citizens, who were arrested in Iran in 2009, without asking the U.S. government to grant Tehran a concession would be contrary to the “spirit of the Islamic Revolution”. U.S. citizens Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Joshua Fattal were arrested by border guards on July 31, 2009 after illegally entering Iran’s territory from Iraq’s Kurdistan region. The three were charged with illegal entry and espionage. Shourd was released from prison on bail of $500,000 on September 14, 2010 and never returned to Iran. Her case is still open. Speaking to the Mehr News Agency on Wednesday, Sorouri said that Shourd never returned to Iran to appear in court after she was released, and the two other imprisoned U.S. citizens will definitely not return to Iran after they leave the country. Sorouri, who is a member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, also said the fact that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently said that the two U.S. citizens will be released soon without the Judiciary’s knowledge is regarded as interference in the affairs of other branches of government. “According to the Constitution, the executive branch of government has no right to make decision about the people charged with espionage,” he added. According to the Fars News Agency, President Ahmadinejad, in an interview with NBC on September 13, announced that the two U.S. citizens would be released in the next few days. Iranian students call for release of Mir-Qolikhan Meanwhile, a number of Iranian student groups have called for the release of Shahrzad Mir-Qolikhan, an Iranian national who is being detained in the United States, in return for the possible release of the two U.S. citizens. Mir-Qolikhan was arrested in the U.S. in December 2007 under the allegation that her former husband, Mahmoud Seif, had tried to export night-vision goggles to Iran from Austria.
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