LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Former boxing champ Muhammad Ali is seeking the release of two American hikers from Iran by lobbying the country’s supreme leader in a way few American dignitaries can: as a brother in Islam.
Arguably the most prominent U.S. Muslim, Ali made his simple, behind-the-scenes appeal to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in February and released his letter to The Associated Press on Wednesday. Ali’s wife said he would be willing to return to the country, which he has visited twice before, to work on the hikers’ release if his health allows.
The letter asks Khamenei to release Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, who have been held on espionage charges since July 2009, when they were arrested while hiking in northern Iraq near the Iranian border. A third hiker, Sarah Shourd, was released on bail in September.
“He was hoping his letter would bear some weight in trying to secure the release of these . . . two idealistic young people,” his wife, Lonnie, said from their Arizona home.
The letter was the second one the 69-year-old former boxer has sent to Khamenei asking for the Americans’ release, she said. The first was sent last year just before Shourd was released, but it isn’t known whether the letter had any effect. There has been no response to either.
Ali, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, is the founder of a center for world peace in Louisville, where he grew up and launched a boxing career that included three world heavyweight titles.
