NEW YORK – An American woman who was held in Iran for more than 13 months and accused of espionage said Sunday she and two men detained with her never spied or committed any crime, calling their arrest “a huge misunderstanding.”

Discussing her experience, Sarah Shourd underscored her gratitude at being released but said she felt only “one-third free” because her fiance, Shane Bauer, and their friend Josh Fattal remain in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.

“This is not the time to celebrate,” Shourd, 32, said at a New York news conference.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly. He later met with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to discuss developments in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East and efforts to resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad told The Associated Press, “We’re very glad that that lady was released. (Due) to the humanitarian perspective the Islamic Republic chose to adopt on the subject, she was released on bail. And we hope that the other two will soon be able to prove and provide evidence to the court that they had no ill intention in crossing the border, so that their release can also be secured.”

Tying the case to Iran’s assertion that some of its citizens are being held unjustly in the United States, he said, “It certainly does not give us joy when we see people in prison, wherever in the world that may be, and even when we think of prisoners here.”

Composed but occasionally wavering with emotion, Shourd thanked Iranians and Ahmadinejad in a carefully scripted return that spoke to the continuing delicacy of her situation. But Shourd stressed their innocence in a case that has added to the roster of tensions between the U.S. and Iran.