**Iran is to put on trial three US citizens who crossed into Iran while hiking in Iraq, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said.**The three young Americans, who were detained in July, are charged with entering Iran illegally.
Their families say they were hiking and strayed across the border accidentally.
Iranian officials have alleged that the three US university students, Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, and Josh Fattal, were spying.
The Americans’ families have described the spying allegations as “entirely at odds with the people Shane, Sarah and Josh are and with anything that Iran can have learned about them since they were detained”.
The United States government has said there is “no evidence to support any charge whatsoever” and called for their release.
Swiss diplomats were allowed to meet the trio in late September for the first time since their arrest.
The Swiss government represents US interests in Iran, with whom the US has no formal diplomatic relations.