A senior Iranian prosecutor accused three Americans detained on the border with Iraq of espionage on Monday, the first signal that Tehran intends to put them on trial, AP reported. The move could set up the Americans _ who relatives say were hiking and strayed across the border from Iraq _ as potential bargaining chips in Iran"s standoff with the West. The announcement came as Washington and Tehran are maneuvering over a deadlock in negotiations over Iran"s nuclear program. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for the release of the three. Clinton said the U.S. would continue to make that case through the Swiss channels who represent U.S. interests in Tehran. Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal, all graduates of the University of California, Berkeley, were arrested July 31 after straying over the Iranian border from northern Iraq. The U.S. government and their families say there were on a hiking vacation and crossed accidentally. Tehran chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi says the three «have been accused of espionage» and that investigations were continuing, according to the state news agency IRNA. He said an «opinion (on their case) will be given in the not distant future.» -- SPA
