Boxing legend Ali asks Iran to release American hikers
March 17th, 2011 - 4:53 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Mar.17 (ANI): Boxing legend Muhammad Ali has appealed to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to free the two Americans who have been held in that country since July 2009 on charges of spying.
Ali, one of the most prominent Muslims in the US, said he had been warmly welcomed to Tehran on a past visit.
He said he hoped to create a new understanding by approaching the Ayatolla with his letter, Sky News reports.
Jeanie Kahnke, a spokeswoman for the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky said that Ali’s letter had been sent to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last month and asked for “mercy and compassion” to be shown to the two men.
Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal had been arrested in July 2009 along the Iraq border while they were on a hiking expedition.
The two had inadvertently crossed the border into Iran, but pleaded ‘not guilty’ in a February court appearance.
A third American, 32-year-old Sarah Shourd, who had also been arrested, was released in September and returned home after paying over 300000 pounds for bail.
The case has further strained the fragile relationship between the US and Iran as the two countries are in a disagreement over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Officials say Bauer and Fattal are due to go on trial on May 11. (ANI)
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