‘Hikers’ held in Iran ‘due to US citizenship’

Two US men jailed in Iran for espionage have returned back to their home country after more than two years in prison.

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal have always maintained they innocently strayed into Iran while hiking in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan region, but an Iranian court last month convicted them to eight years in jail for spying.

The men, both 29, say they were caught up in political crossfire between Washington and Tehran and that they were convicted simply because they were from the US.

Al Jazeera’s Cath Turner reports from New York.