WASHINGTON (AFP) – Sarah Shourd, one of three US hikers arrested by Iran in 2009 on espionage charges, told AFP Wednesday she would not return to Tehran to stand trial next week with her fiance and a friend.
Shourd, who was freed on bail in September after 14 months imprisonment mostly in solitary confinement, said she had been diagnosed with severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Returning to Iran could exacerbate her problems, she said.
Shourd had been due to return for the trial set for May 11 with her fiance Shane Bauer and their friend Josh Fattal, both of whom remain imprisoned in the Islamic Republic.
"I can't go back for the trial," she told AFP in an interview in Washington.
"There is a part of me that would like to go back and stand by Shane and Josh at this most difficult time. But really I'm afraid it would be too traumatic for me to go back after what I've been through in Iran."
The three hikers, who have all pleaded not guilty to spying charges, say they innocently strayed into Iran from across the unmarked border with northern Iraq when they were arrested.
Shourd, 32, who was released after months of international pressure led by the United States, said she had sent the Iranian Revolutionary Court a five-page evaluation by clinical forensic psychologist, Barry Rosenfeld.
He concluded she is at high risk of renewed or even worse psychological problems if she returns to Iran to stand trial.
Shourd had developed a major depressive disorder during her incarceration and needs "aggressive mental health treatment," concluded Rosenfeld.
But Shourd voiced concern for the well-being of Bauer -- to whom she became engaged during their incarceration -- and Fattal.
"I was there for 14 months, they've now been there for over 21 months which is far longer and I'm sure that the extreme isolation they're under has taken its toll," she said.
"I worry about their safety, I worry about their mental health. We've had no information from them, no contact, phone call, nothing for over five months... what I've heard is that they now have only 40 minutes out of their cell every day. They don't see any other human beings and they still haven't been allowed a private meeting with their lawyer."
The families of Bauer and Fattal, both 28, said in a statement they fully supported Shourd's decision, but hoped the men would be released soon.
"Our sons are innocent and we're innocent too, but Iran is making all of us pay a terrible price for nothing. We want this over and we want it over now," said Cindy Hickey, Bauer's mother.
Fattal's mother, Laura Fattal, said: "When Sarah left jail, Josh told her they were all one-third free.
"We hoped Iran would show Josh and Shane the same compassion but here we are more than seven months later and the Iranian authorities are still holding our sons. We know from Sarah's experience that they will bear the mental scars of this senseless ordeal for a long time to come."
The families said the first session of their trial was held February 6, when they testified verbally and in writing, with no evidence presented against them.
Shourd maintained the case has been "caught up in this political tug of war between the US and Iran," adding the espionage charges were "baseless."
"I don't think it's possible that Iran actually sees Shane and Josh as a threat," she said.
"When we were picked up by Iranian soldiers while hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan... all we had were cellphones, cameras and a small plastic compass."
The three, all graduates of the University of California at Berkeley, were hiking near a popular tourist resort in Iraqi Kurdistan when they were detained by Iranian border forces on July 31, 2009.
Bauer, a journalist, and Shourd, a teacher-activist, were living in Damascus, Syria at the time and Fattal, an environmentalist, was visiting them.
The case has become an irritant in already tense Tehran-Washington relations over Iran's nuclear drive, a dispute punctuated by UN sanctions and strident remarks from hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The Iranian defense lawyer for the three, Masoud Shafii, has said he would press for their "innocence" and immediate release.
He said illegal entry was punishable by a maximum three-year jail term, which could be commuted to a fine under the Iranian penal code.
Bauer, a fluent Arabic-speaking freelance journalist, met Shourd while helping to organize anti-US demonstrations in the United States aimed at criticizing the war in Iraq. They moved to Damascus together in 2008.
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