Americans Convicted in Iran as Spies Arrive in U.S.

NEW YORK,(Reuters) - Two U.S. citizens sentenced in Iran to eight years in jail for spying arrived in New York Sunday accompanied by family four days after being released by Iranian authorities.

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal made the last leg of their journey home from Oman, where they flew after officials there helped secure their release by posting $1 million bail.

A fellow passenger confirmed to Reuters TV the two were on board a plane that arrived from London. New York authorities said they would leave the airport from an exit closed to media.

In the Philadelphia-area home of Fattal's family, neighbors hung a big blue "Welcome Home" banner and posted other homecoming messages in potted flowers. It wasn't clear if or when Fattal might arrive there.

Bauer and Fattal were arrested in July 2009 near Iran's border with Iraq along with a third American, Sarah Shourd, who was freed last year on medical grounds.

The trio, in their late 20s and early 30s, said they were hiking and denied being spies.

Shourd, who is Bauer's fiancee, was released on $500,000 bail a year ago and allowed to fly home, but the two men were sentenced to eight years in prison last month after a trial behind closed doors.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad agreed to their release last week as the U.N. General Assembly gathered in New York, saying it was a humanitarian gesture. (Additional reporting by Dave Warner in Philadelphia; Writing by Lauren Keiper; Editing by Jerry Norton)