The Iranian judiciary on Friday denied reports of the imminent release of American hiker Sarah Shourd, the news agency ILNA reported.
ILNA quoted Tehran public prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, as saying that the judiciary would not allow the release of Shourd until the legal process has been brought to an end, dpa reported.
"There will be no release as the legal process is not yet finished and all reports in this regard are not confirmed by the judiciary," Dolatabadi said.
The 31-year-old Shourd, one of three Americans jailed for more than a year in Iran, was to be released on Saturday and even the foreign ministry and reportedly also President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had confirmed the reports.
A spokesman in the presidential office told official news agency that the release of Shroud had been postponed and not cancelled. Mohammed Hassan Salehi gave no further details.
Observers believe that as Saturday is a religious holiday in Iran and all pubic offices, including the judiciary, are closed, the release would be postponed to Sunday in order to arrange all necessary administrative and legal issues.
The foreign press department had invited local and foreign media to cover the release of the female hiker on Saturday morning.
Iranian authorities arrested Shourd, together with Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, in July 2009 when they allegedly crossed an unmarked border into Iran while hiking in Iraq's Kurdistan region.
The remarks by the public prosecutor indicated that the spying charges against the three were still valid.
The Iranian intelligence had accused the three hikers of spying, but the foreign ministry said that the main charge remained illegal entry into Iran and that the espionage charges were still under investigation and not yet confirmed.
Observers believe that Shroud was to be released because a lump was diagnosed in her breast and she needed specialized medical care.
She was scheduled to leave Iran for the US either via Dubai or a European city, but it was believed she would first be medically examined in the US before she could return home to Berkeley, California.