US hikers say they were innocent 'hostages'

"It was clear to us from the very beginning that we were hostages. This is the most accurate term because, despite certain knowledge of our innocence, Iran has always tied our case to its political disputes with the US," said Josh Fattal after returning to the United States earlier yesterday with Shane Bauer.

The pair, both 29, were arrested with Bauer's fiancee Sarah Shourd near the mountainous border with Iraq on July 31, 2009.

All three have always maintained they are innocent of spying and simply strayed across the border into Iran. Shourd was released a year ago for health reasons.

"This was never about crossing the unmarked border between Iran and Iraq. We were held because of our nationality," said Bauer.

"We do not know if we crossed the border. We will probably never know. But even if we did enter Iran, that has never been the reason why the Iranian authorities kept us in prison for so long."

Fattal noted that he and Bauer were held for 781 days, "far longer" than the American hostages held at the US embassy in Tehran for 444 days from November 1979 to January 1981 after students and militants seized the compound in support of the Iranian Revolution.