Freed US national arrives back home

Sarah Shourd, the US national who was released from Iran early last week after more than a year in detention for illegally entering Iran, has arrived in the United States.

In a press conference on Sunday in New York, Shourd said, “I want to begin by again expressing my sincere thanks to the government and the religious leaders of Iran. My gratitude goes in particular to Ayatollah Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad for my compassionate release from detention.”

“It is my deepest hope that the world would not let this humanitarian gesture by the Iranian government and judicial branch go unrecognized,” she added.

Shourd and her mother arrived at Dulles International Airport outside Washington on a US commercial flight from Dubai.

Shourd, 32, Shane Michael Bauer and Joshua Felix Fattal, both 27, were arrested in July 2009 after illegally crossing the border from the mountains of Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

The three Americans were charged with espionage after the Tehran prosecutor found “compelling evidence” that the trio had been cooperating with US intelligence agencies.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called on the release of eight Iranians who are held illegally in the US, noting that Iran made a humanitarian gesture in releasing Sarah Shourd.

Ahmadinejad said the US should make a humanitarian gesture to release eight Iranians “illegally detained” in the US.

The Iranian president is in New York to attend the annual 65th UN General Assembly session.