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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran's opposition urges clerics to help detainees
2009-07-26
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's opposition urged senior clerics on Saturday to help secure the release of people arrested following June's disputed presidential election, after a protester died in prison while people took to the streets in countries accross the world in a show of solidarity with detainess.

A reformist website said the son of an adviser to defeated conservative candidate Mohsen Rezaie had been killed in a Tehran prison after being detained in post-election unrest.

" We are very worried about their physical and mental health ... this imposed state security should end ... It is wrong to link pro-reform detainees to foreign countries "
In a flurry of announcements on websites, critics of the election condemned the tactics employed since the vote by the authorities, who have banned street protests by those who say the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged. "The only way out of this situation is ... to immediately release detainees," Ghalamnews quoted a joint statement issued by moderate defeated candidates and former President Mohammad Khatami as saying. "We are very worried about their physical and mental health ... this imposed state security should end ... It is wrong to link pro-reform detainees to foreign countries," it said.

Tehran has accused western powers of fuelling post-election unrest, charges they deny, adding to tensions over Iran's nuclear program which the West suspects is a cover for building atomic weapons. Iran says its program is peaceful.

Global Day of Action
Meanwhile, demonstrators gathered in more than 110 cities around the world for "Global Day of Action," a day dedicated to Iran's political prisoners. They demanded that Iran's government free all detainees arrested during postelection protests and called on the United Nations to investigate rights abuses.

United For Iran, the group behind the "Global Day of Action", is backed by some of the world's leading NGOs such as Amnesty International, Reporters without Borders, and Human Rights Watch . The group is also supported by prominent figures such as Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Shirin Ebadi and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. "Join me in a worldwide rally on July 25 to support and echo the voices of millions of Iranians who are demanding their civil and human civil rights. The people of Iran need you," Tutu said in a video posted on the group's website,

Detainees tortured
" The intelligence network has turned into the most unclear and terrifying tool to suppress people ... detainees are being kept in illegal detention centers and are under mental torture. Physically they are threatened harshly "
Mehdi Karoubi
Moderate defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karoubi said in a letter to Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei that those detained since the election had been subjected to "mental torture" and treated harshly, his website reported.

"The head of the executive body is not elected by the people's vote. The new government is illegitimate," he said in his letter. "The intelligence network has turned into the most unclear and terrifying tool to suppress people ... detainees are being kept in illegal detention centers and are under mental torture. Physically they are threatened harshly," the letter added.

"Think of a way out of the current crisis, otherwise it will be difficult for you to manage Ramadan and other religious and national days," he added, referring to holidays when people gather and hold rallies.

Killed in Evin prison
The reformist Mosharekat website said on Saturday that Mohsen Ruholamini, the son of a senior adviser to Rezaie, had been killed in Tehran's Evin prison. "His family was told that Mohsen would be released soon. But the authorities informed the family on Thursday night about his death," the website said.

Ruholamini had been arrested in post-election protests on July 9 and held in Evin, the website said. It did not say how he had been killed or when.

Leading moderates, including Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, have called for the immediate release of post-election detainees. The authorities say most of those held have been freed. Iranian official media have said at least 20 people died in violence after the poll. Moderate defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and the authorities blame each other for the bloodshed. Riot police and religious Basij militia eventually suppressed June's protests, but leading moderates have remained defiant, calling the new government "illegitimate."

Mousavi has said he will join a planned group of leading figures to preserve "people's votes", saying he would not allow his killed supporters' "blood to be trampled."
Posted by:Fred

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