TEHRAN – Sarah Shourd, one of the three U.S. citizens who have been detained in Iran for more than a year, was released from prison on Tuesday on a bail of $500,000.

Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi announced that Ms. Shourd was handed over to diplomats at the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which houses the U.S. Interests Section in Iran.
The case inspector informed the Tehran prosecutor of a bank voucher concerning the posting of the bail, and with the prosecutor’s consent, he issued the order for Shourd’s release, the Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
Dolatabadi told Press TV that the ""representatives"" of Shourd paid the bail through a branch of the Bank Melli Iran in Muscat, Oman.
A diplomat at the Swiss embassy told Press TV that Shourd was to leave Iran on Tuesday but her travel plans were not immediately clear.
Earlier, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley stated that the U.S. government would not be involved in any arrangement to pay the required bail for Ms. Shourd.
“The United States government does not fund prisoner bail,” he told reporters on Monday.
Shourd, 32, along with Shane Bauer, 28, and Joshua Fattal, 28, were arrested on July 31, 2009 by Iranian border guards after illegally entering Iran’s territory from Iraq’s Kurdistan region. The three have been charged with illegal entry and espionage.
Officials in Tehran say they have ample evidence to accuse the three U.S. citizens of espionage, and thus they are seeking to bring them on trial.
The Tehran prosecutor said on Sunday that Ms. Shourd had been granted clemency due to the detainee’s poor health.
The investigations on espionage charges against the three U.S. citizens are now completed and the presiding judge of the case has issued the indictments, Dolatabadi said.
The Judiciary has extended the temporary detention of the other two U.S. citizens and they will remain in prison until their trial, he added