Mousavi adviser calls on NAM to stress plight of political prisoners in Iran; authorities are afraid of the people.
Ardeshir Amir-Arjomand, Spokesperson for the Coordination Council of the Green Path of Hope and former legal advisor to Mir Hossein Mousavi, underlined that the release of the opposition leaders was the most “honorable” solution to the political and economic quagmire Iran was tangled in. He warned, “Without national reconciliation, there will be no way out of the current international and domestic deadlock.” Amir-Arjomand described recent remarks by Judiciary Spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje’i about the condition of Karroubi and Mousavi as “Shameful… On the one hand, they say that nobody has the right to negotiate the release of Ms Ranhavard and Mr. Karroubi and Mousavi… and on the on the other hand, he [Eje’i] claims they are in their own homes and not in prison… The authorities are, in fact, afraid of the people.” Amir-Arjomand continued, “Rahnavard, Karroubi and Mousavi mirror the demands of a large segment of the Iranian people.” Amir-Arjomand said it was still too early to reach a final decision regarding the 2013 elections. “The people must be convinced that they have a right to choose and that their votes will be safeguarded. How can people be convinced when candidates from the previous elections as well as political activists are still in prison, and there’s no freedom for dialogue or assembly… As long as the Revolutionary Guard and Ahmad Jannati [Chairman of the Guardians Council] are the ones who determine the outcome of elections, nothing will change.” He urged countries participating in the upcoming summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran to highlight the plight of political prisoners in Iran and to send low-level delegations to the conference to protest the ongoing human rights violations in Iran.
Source: Iran Daily Brief