Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- American hikers Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer were released from an Iranian prison into the care of an Omani official Wednesday, a senior American official told CNN.

American hikers freed in Iran

Diplomatic cars sent to collect them from the country's notorious Evin Prison left through the front gates, accompanied by a police escort, but Bauer and Fattal were not visible in the vehicles.

Oman's envoy to Tehran, Salem al Ismaily, told CNN the pair are now in the custody of the Omani government and on their way to its capital, Muscat, "where they will spend a couple of days before heading home." The men's families, as well as fellow hiker Sarah Shourd -- who was freed last year on medical grounds -- were waiting for them in Oman and were looking forward to their reunion. Shourd is now Bauer's fiancee.

The two Americans were released on bail of $500,000 each and their sentences were commuted, Iran's judiciary said, according to government-run Press TV.

Their release comes a day before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due to speak at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Bauer and Fattal, both 29, were convicted last month of entering Iran illegally and spying for the United States, and each was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Their attorney, Masoud Shafiee, went into the prison earlier in the day with paperwork to show that bail had been paid for each of them. A judge had signed the bail papers that morning after several days of delays.

The lawyer declined to say who had paid the bail.

Swiss and Omani officials waited outside the prison to receive the Americans. Switzerland represents United States interests in Iran because there is no American embassy there, and Oman has acted as a broker between Washington and Tehran in the past.

Fattal and Bauer were arrested along with Shourd in July 2009 after apparently straying over an unmarked border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran.

Shourd was freed almost exactly a year ago on medical grounds. Her release came a week before Ahmadinejad addressed the U.N. last year.

One analyst said the timing last year was no coincidence.

"I think President Ahmadinejad really wanted to use this as a way of building up a store of goodwill just before he comes to New York," Columbia University Prof. Gary Sick said last year after Shourd came home.

Oman helped secure the release of Shourd, posting her bail last September, a senior Obama administration official said at the time.

The Americans say they accidentally crossed into Iran when they veered off a dirt road while hiking near a sight-seeing venture in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. They denied the charges and appealed the sentence while serving time in prison.

High-profile American Muslims including boxing legend Muhammad Ali called for their release, and a high-profile delegation and Christian and Muslim American religious leaders met Ahmadinejad in Iran last week to plead for their freedom.

Ahmadinejad said before the meeting that the release of Fattal and Bauer was imminent, setting off a week-long roller coaster ride of expectations.

The judiciary shot back that only it could make decisions about their release.

Shafiee then announced that all the paperwork had been filed for them to be freed on bail, but their release was delayed by the lack of a judge's signature on bail paperwork.

An Omani official flew to Iran on September 14 to help work on any negotiation, a Western diplomat told CNN at the time.

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