Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian authorities charged three U.S. citizens with espionage, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said they were innocent and called for their release.

Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal are accused of spying, state-run Press TV cited Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari- Dolatabadi as saying today.

“The investigation on the case of these three people continues,” Jafari-Dolatabadi said, adding that more comments will be made in the “not so distant future,” the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The three were arrested in a province bordering Iraq on July 31. U.S. officials said the three were hiking when they mistakenly crossed into Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan. The charges will stir more tension with the U.S., which with its allies is entangled in a dispute with Iran over the country’s nuclear program.

“We believe strongly that there’s no evidence to support any charge whatsoever,” Clinton told reporters in Berlin today.

Iran sparked a crisis in 2007 when it seized and held 15 U.K. sailors and marines for two weeks. Two years earlier, Iran jailed a French and a German citizen who had strayed into Iranian waters during a fishing trip. Sentenced to 18 months in jail, they were released after being granted clemency by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Swiss Embassy Report

The three Americans are in good health, Swiss diplomats told the families after visiting the detainees on Sept. 29. The Swiss Embassy, which represents U.S. interests in Iran, “reported that Shane, Sarah and Josh are in good shape and are being well treated,” the families said in a statement.

In protests that followed the disputed June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, foreigners were among people arrested for fomenting unrest.

Iranian-U.S. scholar Kian Tajbakhsh was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being convicted of a role in the protests, his lawyer said Oct. 20.

Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian reporter working for Newsweek, was allowed to fly to London on Oct. 20 after four months in jail.

Farhad Pouladi, an Iranian reporter for Agence France- Presse, was also detained in Tehran on Nov. 4, AFP said. He was released on Nov. 7.

Embassy Seizure

Iran held celebrations on Nov. 4 to mark the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy, in which 52 American diplomats were held hostage for 444 days. The Iranian opposition used the occasion to revive protests over the presidential election.

The trial of a French academic, Clothilde Reiss, 24, who was arrested on July 1, will resume shortly, AFP reported, citing the Tehran prosecutor today. Reiss has been living in the French Embassy since she was freed from jail in mid-August.

Two Canadian reporters and one Japanese were held on Nov. 4 for “unauthorized reporting,” state-run Fars news agency said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ali Sheikholeslami in London at alis2@bloomberg.net; Ladane Nasseri in Beirut, Lebanon at lnasseri@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 9, 2009 10:51 EST