Iran releases 2 Americans

Iran has released 2 US citizens convicted of espionage after they served 2 years in prison.

Iran's judicial authorities granted amnesty to Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer on Wednesday. Their lawyer says a total of one million-dollars bail was paid to Iran's judicial authorities for their release.

Iran's security authorities arrested the 2 men and a US woman in July 2009, after they were found hiking along the Iraq-Iran border in an area under Kurdish self-rule. The woman was later released. But last month, the men were convicted by an Iranian court of cooperating with US intelligence and sentenced to 8 years each in prison.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently suggested that they may be released early. But that was immediately denied by judicial authorities. The discrepancy left an impression on the people of Iran as well as on the international community that the power of the president was in decline.

Analysts say Ahmadinejad, now visiting New York, is trying to ease criticism by the United States, his country's archrival, by having the release coincide with his attendance at the UN General Assembly.