Iran's opposition seeks clergy help for political detainees release

Jul 25, 2009, 11:52 GMT

Tehran - A large number of Iranian opposition figures, including opposition leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi, called Saturday on senior clergy circles to help gain the release of political detainees.

In a letter to the senior ayatollahs carried on Moussavi's website Ghalamnews, the opposition figures warned against 'grave consequences' of continued detainment of the protesters.

More than 1,000 people were arrested following the June 12 presidential election in protests against alleged fraud that led to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.

More than 100 people, including journalists and former government ministers and parliament deputies, are still in jail.

The opposition figures, including ex-president Mohammad Khatami and former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi, accused security officials of 'torture' in their interrogations 'which remind everybody of the dark Shah era.'

'Under what legal, Islamic and humanitarian principles can torture against these people be justified?' the opposition figures asked.

According to the website of the Etemad Melli party, Karroubi in a letter has accused Intelligence Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei with both mental and physical mistreatment of the detainees.

The signatories of the letter once again decried the security officials' efforts to link the detainees to foreign espionage networks.

They also condemned the state television network IRIB for acting as the government's mouthpiece and broadcasting parts of 'staged confessions' by detainees.

'The only way out of the current situation is a transparent and decisive move to stop the increasing security status in the country and release of all detainees,' the opposition figures said in their letter to the ayatollahs.