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NEW YORK: Two US hikers held by Iran for more than two years on spying charges arrived back in the United States on Sunday and were expected to provide detail of their long prison ordeal for the first time.
"They landed two seconds ago. They are happy to be here," hikers' spokeswoman Samantha Topping told AFP after the plane carrying Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal touched down at New York's John F. Kennedy airport.
Bauer and Fattal, who have not yet spoken publicly about their prison ordeal, were shepherded through airport security away from the prying eyes of the media without making a comment.
They were expected to hold a press conference later Sunday providing the first details about their 781 long days in Iranian detention, most which were spent in Tehran's notorious Evin prison.
The pair, both 29, were arrested with Sarah Shourd near the mountainous border with Iraq on July 31 2009. All three have always maintained they are innocent of spying and simply strayed across the border into Iran.
Shourd, a teacher, writer and women's rights activist, met Bauer, a fluent Arabic-speaking freelance journalist, while helping to organise demonstrations in the US against the war in Iraq. The two moved to Damascus together in 2008.
Fattal, who grew up in Pennsylvania, is an environmentalist and teacher. He travelled in 2009 to Damascus, where he met Shourd and Bauer, who became engaged during their time in captivity.
At Muscat International Airport, before leaving for the United States, Bauer and Fattal thanked the Gulf sultanate of Oman for posting their bail, $400,000 each, and expressed delight at being freed by Iran on Wednesday.
"Getting off the plane that brought us here three days ago was the most incredible experience of our lives. We will never forget the excitement of seeing our loved ones waiting for us at the foot of the plane," said Bauer.
"Just hours after we left prison, we were able to swim in the calm waters of the Gulf. We stayed up all night with our loved ones and watched the most beautiful sunrise we have ever seen," said Fattal. "These experiences will be with us for the rest of our lives."
Accompanying them on the ride home were Bauer's parents Cindy Hickey and Al Bauer, Fattal's parents Laura and Jacob Fattal with his brother Alex, and Shourd, 33, who was released for health reasons last year.
Concern grew over Bauer and Fattal last month when they were sentenced to eight years in prison for spying and there were emotional scenes on Wednesday when they ran down the steps of the plane at Muscat airport smiling and shouting happily as they hugged their parents.
President Barack Obama called the release "wonderful news" and said: "I could not feel better for their families and those moms who we have been in close contact with, its a wonderful day for them and for us."
Obama called Oman's Sultan Qaboos on Friday for his role in pushing Iran to free the US hikers.
Their arrests angered Washington, which already has deep differences with Tehran over its controversial nuclear programme, its refusal to recognise Israel and its support for militant groups in the Middle East.
The United States on Thursday led a mass walkout of the UN General Assembly as Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched an outspoken attack on Western nations.
The Iranian leader again cast doubt on the origins of the Holocaust and the September 11, 2001 attacks and criticised the United States for killing Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden rather than bringing him to trial.
Iran, accused by Western nations of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon, is under four sets of UN sanctions for refusing for years to bow to international demands to rein in uranium enrichment.
- AFP/de
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