I believe their stated purpose of ‘hiking’ in those beautiful mountains is absolute bull sh*t (look at those mountain), and I could not care less what eventually happened to them. Someone swimming a swamp does not deserve to be eaten by a crocodile but I am not going to be sympathetic when he does. These people were up to something, probably CIA agnets trying to infiltrate Iran.
These fools went there to be captured so that they could get publicity for themselves and write a book or two about their “experiences.”
The fact that they had to spend two years in an Iranian jail may have been more than they bargained for, but they were hardly “hikers.”