Courtesy of Global Voices Online

If you are looking for a nice summer hike, we highly recommend you avoid the mountainous border of Iraq and Iran.

Two summers ago, three young western hikers were arrested in that region for allegedly stepping on Iranian soil.  Their crime? Espionage and trespassing.

The young travelers claimed they saw no sign indicating they had entered Iran and were unfairly tried.

Eyewitness testimony reported by US news magazine The Nation placed the three hikers inside Iraq, not Iran, at the time of their arrest by Iranian troops. The Iranian authorities maintain that they were arrested inside Iranian territory.

One of the hikers, Sarah Shourd, was luckily released last year due to health reasons. She personally thanked Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Most recently, the other two prisoners, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, have been sentenced to eight more years in prison with only twenty days to appeal this charge. They have been denied their lawyer before.

We all know that relations between the US and Iran are frosty, at best.

Now it seems these two poor hikers are pawns in a game of international brinkmanship.

Malcolm Smart of Amnesty International reports:

The way this case has been handled from the outset strongly suggests that they are being held as a bargaining chip to allow Iran to obtain unspecified concessions from the US government

The hikers’ website freethehikers.org keeps up-to-date with the latest headlines. What international prisoners’ rights should be granted in the U.S. and abroad?