(Image source: CNN)

BY MALLORY PERRYMAN

ANCHORED BY MEGAN MURPHY

You're watching multisource politics news analysis from Newsy.

Two American hikers jailed in Iran for more than two years are finally headed home. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were convicted of spying after wandering across the border in 2009.

A CNN producer reports from Iran.

“Nobody saw the actual two hikers but they Omani cars that went inside the prison to get them out came out with police escort and left and then the Swiss ambassador car followed so as far as we can tell it is confirmed that they have been released.”

That freedom comes after a week of on-again, off-again news of a possible release.

(video from September 13, 2011)
Last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told NBC the hikers would be released within a few days. But that promise was quickly followed by this.

“...soon after his announcement, Iran’s judiciary denied that the men would be freed imminently, saying it had exclusive authority to order their release.” (The New York Times)

The judiciary did eventually get on board and requested a $500,000 bond for each hiker. But then, the Washington Post reports, another snag.

“[Fattal and Bauer’s] lawyer...said that when he attempted to get the two signatures required for the $1 million bail deal... he was told that one of the judges who was needed to sign off on the agreement was on vacation and would return in a few days.”

Finally Wednesday morning, Iran’s state-run media Press TV announced the jailed hikers were hours away from freedom and Fattal and Bauer’s lawyer went to Evin prison to prove the bail was paid.

CNN explains what might happen next.
 

“The previous person that was in Evin prison as part of this group, Sarah Shourd, she was released almost immediately and ended up in Oman pretty quickly and came home very very fast so that’s the information that we have. It is likely that they will go to Oman.”

The release puts an end to a two-year ordeal that divided people into two schools of thought -- those who believed the imprisonment was unwarranted and another group, which an LA Times blogger describes as...

“...indignant bloggers and commenters characterizing the hikers as ‘morons,’ ‘idiots’ and ‘self-indulgent wackos’ who have no one but themselves to blame... So vehement is this disapproval that it lends itself to its own coinage and category. Call it ‘hiker hate.’”

It is unclear who paid the $1 million bail for Bauer and Fattal.

Transcript by Newsy.