Boxer Calls On Iran To Release Imprisoned Backpackers

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and a collection of other Senate Democrats called upon Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to release three Americans imprisoned after allegedly straying onto Iranian soil while backpacking last August.

“Enough is enough,” Boxer said during a press conference Tuesday in the U.S. Capitol. “We call on [Ahmadinedjad] today to immediately release the three [Americans] on humanitarian grounds.”

Boxer added that if the Iranian government is unwilling to release the prisoners, then they should at least allow their families to visit them in prison by granting travel visas. Additionally, Boxer asked for the prisoners be given permission to contact their families via telephone.

The California Senator stressed the urgency of the situation, explaining that Swiss authorities who visited the prisoners reported that two of the Americans are in poor health.

The Senators’ call for the backpackers’ release coincides with Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York for an international conference on nuclear policy. According to Boxer, attempts by the prisoners’ families to arrange a meeting with the Iranian president in the city have been fruitless.

The Iranian government has refused to release the backpackers amid concerns that they were engaged in espionage, a charge that Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Penn.) dismissed as “absurd.”

“They are pawns in an international struggle,” Specter said.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) added that evidence shown to the Senators from intelligence officials has further dissuaded the Senators from entertaining the notion that the Americans were spies.

The three backpackers have been identified as Shane Bauer, Sarah Emily Shourd and Joshua Fattal. Both Bauer and Shourd are journalists.