Hiker’s Accidently or Purposely Crossed Border to Iran and Imprisoned

It is hard to determine the actual punishment for the hikers who crossed the Iran border. Although they knew they were close to the border and that any minute they could accidently stumble or cross across the border, it is hard to say if they knew they crossed the border or thought they were still on the opposite side.

According to the website http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/world/middleeast/02iraq.html  it states that there appeared to be four American students whose ages ranged from 27 to 36 were hiking in Kurdistan and spent the night at hotel in Sulaimaniya. One student happened to fall ill and did not continue the journey. The remaining three headed to Ahmed Awa, a mountainous waterfalls and caves near the Iranian border. They camped at the border that evening. The next morning a Kurdish official said that the three hikers trekked into the Iran territory knowingly or unknowingly and were captured by Iranians. The fourth student who did not continue was handed over to American Embassy officials in Baghdad. They have been held in Evin Prison in Iraq since July 31.

“The Americans were just lost tourists who accidentally crossed the border, the Iraqi foreign minister says. But one Iranian lawmaker has said they were ‘definitely spies,” states the website article http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/10/world/fg-iraq-hikers10 . The minister appears to believe and conclude he is willing to help free the three hikers because he believes they were just lost tourist who accidently strayed across and into the Iran border. The Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi-Qomi confirmed that the three had been arrested for entering Iran without visas passes and were being interviewed and questioned to find out “what their mission really was.” The Ambassador of Iraq seems to think otherwise. He thinks they know what they were doing and crossed the border on purpose. Since they did not have their Visas, they were accused of spying for the United States. On one account that the Ambassador came to his conclusion is because the United States and Iran do not have ties that bind the two countries together. Therefore they could have been spying on Iran, been caught and captured, and then claimed they were innocent lost hikers. He also mentioned in his conference with the minister and officials that after the incident with journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling crossing into North Korea’s territory and being assumed of being spies, that should have awakened them. 

I personally do not think the students were spies. I came to that conclusion based on their prior knowledge to the Lee and Ling incident. I doubt they would knowing the outcomes if they were caught and captured. I think if they were spies they would have taken a different approach of spying, and not just been out in the open about their hiking trip. Plus they would’ve taken all their evidence and did away with it all instead of leaving everything behind.

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