US hikers accuse Iran of holding them hostage

Two American hikers detained in Iran for more than two years have described the anguish of being denied contact with their families or news about their case, saying they "lived in a world of lies and false hope".

Addressing reporters in New York shortly after arriving in the US following their release from prison last week, Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer, both 29, said they were hugely happy to be free but felt no sense of gratitude towards authorities in Tehran.

"We want to be clear: they do not deserve undue credit for ending what they had no right and no justification to start in the first place," Fattal said.

"From the very start, the only reason we have been held hostage is because we are American."

The pair were seized along with fellow American Sarah Shourd in July 2009 by Iranian guards while they were hiking in Iraq's Kurdish region, near an unmarked border with Iran.

Fattal and Bauer were convicted of spying last month. Shourd, who became engaged to Bauer during their detention, was released separately last year.

The men, standing with Shourd, 31, on Sunday, said they went on repeated hunger strikes to pressure authorities into passing them the daily letters written by their families. Eventually they were told their relatives had stopped writing.      More

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