Iranian Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi, in an open letter to President Hassan Rohani, has lauded the decision to release the Iranian-American prisoners in Iran, saying: “We hope the day of reconciliation with the good people of Iran also arrives soon and the ‘sweetness’ of that reconciliation is celebrated with the opening of prison doors and the release of all political prisoners.”
The Centre for Supporters of Human Rights reports that in her letter, Ebadi refers to the continued house arrest of MirHosein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard and Mehdi Karroubi, and expresses concern that “the Iranian government can reconcile with its enemy of 37 years but not with its own people”.
She adds that many activists in jail are in effect “kidnapped by the security forces” and expresses pity that these prisoners “will have to remain in jail because of their citizenship”.
Ebadi names Omid Kokabi (a young scientist), Abdolfattah Soltani (a lawyer), Nargess Mohammadi (a civil activist), Bahareh Hedayat (a student activist), Issa Saharkhiz (a journalist) and Saeed Madani (a political activist) as some of the prisoners languishing in Islamic Republic prisons.
Iran and the 5+1 announced on Saturday the implementation of the nuclear deal they had reached last summer, and in the lead-up, a number of Iranian-American prisoners were released in exchange for a number of Iranian nationals jailed in the U.S.
