Alex, 32, and his parents, Laura and Jacob Fattal, have campaigned tirelessly to win freedom for Josh and his hiking companion Shane Bauer of Minnesota. Both 28, the old friends from the University of California, Berkeley, were arrested on July 31, 2009, while trekking on the border with Iraqi Kurdistan, and charged with entering Iran illegally. Iranian officials have accused them of spying.
A third hiker, Sarah Shourd, 32, of California, was released on bail eight months ago for medical reasons after more than a year in solitary confinement. This week, citing a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, Shourd, who also attended UC-Berkeley and became engaged to Bauer in prison, said she would not return to stand trial. She could be tried in absentia, or rescheduled for trial.
The three have denied entering the country knowingly or having any involvement with espionage.
Facing her second Mother's Day with her son still in prison, Laura Fattal said Iranian authorities know her son and his companions are innocent, which makes her angry about the delays.
"If they want to go through their judicial process, fine," she said. "But now it's cruel. We're up to [the point of] seeing this as grievous and inhumane. This is not the compassion and mercy we are expecting" of the "Iranians when they say they are a compassionate nation."
She spoke near a table in the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue Gourmet Food Court in Center City, where supporters sold "Free the Hikers" cards for Mother's Day, and merchants donated a portion of their receipts to the cause. The five-day fund-raiser, which ended Friday, was organized by Bret Goldman, a Fattal family friend who operates several restaurants in the food court.
