WASHINGTON (AFP) – Legendary boxing champion Muhammad Ali came to Washington Tuesday supporting a call for Iran's supreme leader to free two American hikers imprisoned in the Islamic republic since 2009.
"The people of Iran are good people... and I can assure you they love this man," Lonnie Ali said of her boxing husband sitting at her side at a press conference with several US Muslim organizations.
"It's based on their compassion, the love of Allah and the love of Mohamed that we ask them to be released."
Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 28, were arrested along with Sarah Shourd, 32, on the unmarked border between Iran and Iraq on July 31, 2009. They have pleaded not guilty to spying charges.
The three-time heavyweight champion of the world, now 69 and suffering from Parkinson's disease, joined a dozen Muslim leaders in signing a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei seeking the hikers' release.
"After listening to the families, we believe that these Americans did not seek to cause any problems between the United States and Muslim world or the United States and Iran, but were in the region for the opposite purpose, to promote dialogue and understanding," they said in their letter.
"Please show them Islamic compassion, mercy, and forgiveness and allow them to continue on this mission," they said, adding that showing such mercy could "help create a more positive image of Islam."
Ali, widely considered the greatest boxer of all time, changed his name from Cassius Clay when he embraced Islam in the 1960s.
In retirement he has undertaken several key humanitarian missions, including traveling to Iraq to meet Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War in 1991 in a bid to free American hostages. He also went to Afghanistan in 2002 as a UN messenger of peace.
"Standing here today beside Muhammad Ali (and Muslim leaders) is one of the greatest honors I've experienced in my life," said Shourd, who was released by Tehran last September for health reasons.
"These men have spent their lives spreading the truth of the Koran and the values of justice."
The hikers' arrest and continued detention has strained already tense ties with Tehran. The espionage trial has been hit by a number of delays since November, and their second hearing session scheduled for May 11 was canceled after the two men were not brought to court, according to their lawyer.
Bauer and Fattal were allowed to call home Sunday for just the third time since their arrest, telling their families they had staged a 17-day hunger strike earlier this year after being prevented from receiving letters.
Shourd said their detention "has everything to do with the animosity between the US and Iran and nothing to do with two innocent men who have always stood on the side of what's right."
Mother Laura Fattal said: "Josh and Shane have committed no crime. We believe they are being punished simply because of their nationality. Their isolation is extreme."
Both mothers, along with other relatives, are observing a rotating hunger strike in solidarity with the detained men.
A bejeweled Ali, smartly dressed and wearing sunglasses, listed attentively.
"It was important for him to be here," his wife told AFP.
"He has become a citizen of the world and these young people too," she said, describing the hikers as "three idealistic young Americans who remind him of himself."
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