A senior prosecutor said on Sunday that Iran is ready to release Ms Sarah Shourd, one of three US hikers detained for more than a year and accused of spying, on bail of around
$500,000. "For the female defendant (Shourd), bail has been set at five billion Iranian rials (around $5,00,000)," the official IRNA news agency quoted Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as telling reporters. "She can be freed by posting the bail... Her lawyer has been informed." Ms Shourd was arrested with fellow hikers Mr Shane Bauer and Mr Josh Fattal on July 31, 2009 after straying across the border from neighbouring Iraq. Mr Dolatabadi said the decision to free Ms Shourd on bail was taken after "the judge confirmed Ms Shourd's illness." SMs hourd's mother Nora told AFP last month that her daughter was being held in solitary confinement despite suffering from a pre-cancerous cervical condition, a lump in her breast and depression. Iranian authorities have accused the three Americans of illegally entering the Islamic republic and of spying. But they insist they entered the country by mistake after getting lost during a trek in Iraqi Kurdistan. Mr Dolatabadi said that there were "enough reasons to accuse the three of espionage." "The case is nearly complete and the judge has issued an indictment for the three Americans accused of spying," he said, adding that Mr Bauer and Mr Fattal had been remanded in custody. "It has been proven that they illegally entered through the Kurdistan border. Also the equipment and supplies they were carrying are only used for spying," Mr Dolatabadi was quoted by the Mehr news agency as saying.