Released US hiker Sarah Shourd ‘gratified’ after meeting Ahmadinejad at UN

NEW YORK - Freed U.S. hiker Sarah Shourd, who was held in Iran for more than a year and returned to her country last week, has met with Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations in New York to seek the release of two American male hikers who are still in custody in Tehran.

During the meeting, she reportedly urged for the freedom of her fiance, Shane Bauer, and friend Josh Fattal, who remain jailed in Tehran’s Evin Prison.

“I just want to thank Ahmadinejad for this gesture of allowing my mother and I to meet with him and for the mothers of Shane and Josh. It was a very gracious gesture and a good meeting,” the BBC quoted Shourd, as saying.

The three were arrested by Iranian border guards in the country’s north in July 2009 and accused of spying.

While in prison, Shourd had pleaded for a private conversation with the President, which was not permitted.

Thirty-two year-old Shourd was released on September 14 and returned to the US last week.

Shourd and the other two hikers have always maintained that they accidentally crossed over the border into Iran from Iraq while hiking in the mountains of Kurdistan. (ANI)