Oman plane in Iran, awaiting U.S. citizens' release (Reuters)

MUSCAT (Reuters) – The Gulf state of Oman has sent a plane to Iran for the expected release of two U.S. citizens convicted of spying, and they could be freed within 24 hours, an Omani Foreign Ministry official said on Friday.

"We are still waiting for the final word about taking the Americans to Muscat with our plane now in Tehran. Hard to say when that will happen, perhaps in the next 24 hours, but we are hopeful it will happen soon," the official told Reuters, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a U.S. TV interview aired on Tuesday that Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal would be freed in coming days in a humanitarian gesture before his trip to the United Nations in New York. But Iran's judiciary then said the release was not imminent.

Oman dispatched the plane on Thursday after its ruler, Sultan Qaboos, received assurances from Iran about flying the two Americans to the Omani capital Muscat to be handed over to the U.S. embassy, the Foreign Ministry official said.

Oman also helped facilitate the release of a third member of the group a year ago.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington remained hopeful that Iran would release the two U.S. hikers and was not unduly concerned by Tehran's delay in carrying out a pledge to free them earlier this week.

Clinton said the United States had noted previous delays between official Iranian announcements and their eventual execution and had been assured by a number of sources both publicly and privately that the two men would be freed.

Bauer and Fattal were arrested in July 2009 near Iran's border with Iraq, where they say they were hiking in the mountains as tourists. They were with a third American, Sarah Shourd, who was allowed to go home in September 2010 after being freed on $500,000 bail.

Their lawyer said on Tuesday the men, who were sentenced last month to eight years' imprisonment, would be released on $500,000 bail each. They share a cell in Tehran's Evin prison.

U.S. officials have repeatedly denied the two men were spies and the case has caused further tension between Tehran and Washington, which says the Islamic state is trying to develop nuclear weapons and has imposed sanctions on Iran.

Tehran denies this, saying its nuclear program is only aimed at generating power and it has refused to suspend its sensitive nuclear work despite several U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding that it do so.

(Reporting by Saleh al-Shaibany; Writing by Firouz Sedarat; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Crack offenders eligible for early release (AP)

WASHINGTON – Thousands of federal prisoners locked up for offenses involving crack cocaine will be eligible for early release after a vote Thursday by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

Congress passed a law last year substantially lowering recommended sentences for people convicted of crack cocaine crimes, ranging from possession to trafficking. The idea was to fix a longstanding disparity in punishments for crack and powder cocaine crimes, but the new, lower recommended sentences didn't automatically apply to offenders already in prison. On Thursday the six-member sentencing commission unanimously decided that offenders locked up for crack offenses before the new law took effect should also benefit.

"I believe that the commission has no choice but to make this right," said Ketanji Brown Jackson, a vice chair of the commission. "I say justice demands this result."

The commission's decision is final unless Congress decides to intervene by the end of October, though that is considered unlikely.

According to the commission's own research, approximately 12,000 of the roughly 200,000 people incarcerated in federal prisons nationwide will be eligible to have their sentences reduced because of Thursday's vote. The average sentence reduction is expected to be approximately three years, though a judge will have to approve any lower sentence. Individuals convicted under state law and in state prisons will not be affected. The Bureau of Prisons estimates that over the first five years the change will save $200 million.

In its ruling Thursday the commission took a broad view of who should benefit from lower recommended sentences, though various groups had urged the commission to act more narrowly. A group of 15 Republican lawmakers from the House and Senate wrote to the commission saying the Fair Sentencing Act passed by Congress last year was not intended to benefit any past offenders. And U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder took the position that prisoners who used weapons during their crimes or who have significant criminal histories should not be eligible for reduced sentences. That would have cut in half the number of prisoners eligible for early release from 12,000 to approximately 6,000.

Prisoners eligible for a reduction can begin petitioning judges for a revised sentence beginning in November, assuming Congress does not act.

The reductions would not be automatic. A lawyer, the overwhelming majority of them public defenders, would file paperwork in court for the prisoner seeking a reduction, and the reduction would have to be approved by a judge. Prisoners would not necessarily have to appear in court, but prosecutors would also weigh in.

Courts have had prior experience with the process. In 2007 approximately 16,000 crack offenders had their sentences reduced after another action by the Sentencing Commission.

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