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Cindy Hickey and Nora Shourd, mothers of two of the hikers, protest outside the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York.

Two UC Berkeley graduates who have been imprisoned in Iran for more than two years have been convicted of illegal entry and espionage and sentenced to eight years, Iranian state television reported. 

Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, both 28, were arrested along with Sarah Shourd in the summer of 2009 while hiking in Kurdistan along the Iraq - Iran border. Shourd was released on bail last year and returned to the U.S. 

Friends and family of the imprisoned men had hoped the trial might conclude with their release. 

According to the New York Times, the Iranian state television Web site said that “in connection with illegal entry into Iranian territory, each was given three years in jail and in connection with the charge of cooperating with an American intelligence service, each was given five years in jail.”

The Associated Press has a good story on the policy implications here. 

CNN has some background on how they got into the mess.