Two years after former presidential candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi were placed under house arrest by the Iranian authorities on grounds of calling for demonstrations to support the Arab Spring uprising in the region, the S&D Group reaffirms its call for their immediate release.
Alongside the two former candidates, Zahra Rahnavard, author and political activist, and Mousavi's wife, has been placed under house arrest since 2011. Family members of the three continue to suffered harassment by the authorities.
Libor Rouček, S&D Group Vice-President, commented:
" We wish to remind the Iranian authorities that the UN bodies have repeatedly called on the Iranian government to release these opposition figures, as well as hundreds of other prisoners of conscience who remain in prison for peacefully exercising their right to free speech and freedom of association and assembly".
María Muñiz de Urquiza, S&D spokesperson on Iran, stated:
"Many dissidents were arrested in the government’s post-2009 election crackdown and sentenced after televised show trials in which they were shown 'confessing' to national security ‘crimes’. As Iran prepares for fresh presidential elections in June 2013, its security forces have initiated a new wave of arrests against journalists, apparently in an effort to silence dissidents prior to the presidential election.
"We call on Iran to immediately release everyone detained for exercising their rights to freedom of speech, assembly, or association, and to cooperate with UN bodies in meeting its international commitments to human rights".
Ana Gomes, S&D spokesperson on foreign affairs, said:
We call on the Union´s High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Catherine Ashton to continually raise the human rights issues in her contacts with the Iranian counterparts. Human rights concerns must not be sidelined or bartered away in the context of the negotiations over Iran´s nuclear programme. The EU´s commitment to the rights of the Iranian people should be consistently applied.
Zdroj: Céline Bayer, 14.2.2013, www.socialistsanddemocrats.eu
