8-Year Prison Sentence For Elkins Park Man Jailed in Iran: Report

Iran's state TV is reporting that two American men already held for two years in Tehran have been sentenced to 8 years in jail each on charges of espionage and illegal entry.

Josh Fattal of Elkins Park, has been held since July 2009 together with Shane Bauer of Minnesota after being taken into custody on the Iran-Iraq border.

A third American who was taken with them, Sarah Shourd, was released in September on $500,000 bail and returned to the United States.

The station's website says Bauer and Fattal, who are both 28, have been sentenced to three years each for illegal entry into Iran and five years each for spying for the United States. It's not clear if that includes time served.

They have 20 days to appeal the sentence.

Earlier this month, there had been some hope that the two would be released, after an Iranian ambassador told the AP that Iranian public sentiment supported dropping charges against the two. 

Bauer, Fattal and Shourd, were arrested after they said they mistakenly crossed into Iran while hiking in Iraq.