Ahmadinejad: Detained U.S. hikers deserved punishment

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three American hikers imprisoned in Iran broke the law by violating the border and deserved to be punished, Iran's president said in remarks aired

on Friday, but he said he hoped they would be freed soon.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggested in an interview broadcast on NBC's "Today" show that release of the three Americans might be linked to the release of Iranian diplomats he said were held by U.S. troops in Iraq.

His remarks came in response to a question about a letter sent to him by the mothers of the hikers. The three hikers, Shane Bauer, 27, Sarah Shourd, 31, and Josh Fattal, 27, crossed into Iranian territory over a month ago and were arrested.

The hikers' families say they strayed across the border accidentally.

A leading Iranian lawmaker has suggested the illegal entry may have been related to unrest that erupted after Iran's disputed election in June. The Iranian government has said it will take time to investigate the case.

The mothers appealed for Ahmadinejad to bring the three to the United States as a humanitarian gesture when he attends the U.N. General Assembly in New York next week. But Ahmadinejad questioned whether Washington would make a similar gesture.

"I ask you: Five Iranian diplomats for two years now they were imprisoned by U.S. troops," Ahmadinejad said through a translator. "They had not violated the law. They were going about their diplomatic business and life in Arbil in Iraq."

"U.S. troops in Iraq without any documentation arrested them. The U.S. government, is it going to strike a humanitarian posture by releasing them? Will it release them? Of course under an equal condition we are ready to engage in reciprocal action," he added.

It was not immediately clear which diplomats he was referring to. U.S. troops detained five Iranian diplomats -- several of them working in Arbil -- over the past two years, but they were released in July to Iraqi authorities who returned them to Iran.

The five Iranians were arrested at different times over a three-year period. Some were accused by U.S. forces of arming Shi'ite Muslim militias at the height of Iraq's sectarian war.

The United States said it released the Iranians to Iraq at the request of the government in Baghdad in compliance with a U.S.-Iraq security agreement that took effect in January.

Ahmadinejad said the three American hikers, who were detained in late July, had "violated our borders and in accordance with the laws they need to be punished." He said families needed to know "that these individuals have trampled, have violated the law."

"However, I'm going to do my best for the Iranians who are in U.S. prisons to be set free and for these individuals, U.S. citizens here, to be set free also," he added. "I am hoping this will happen as soon as possible."

(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Eric Beech)