The house arrest of three Iranian opposition leaders has been challenged by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), which has called on the Islamic Republic government to release MirHosein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi and Zahra Rahnavard.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reports that the UN Working Group has described the house arrest of the Iranian opposition leaders as “arbitrary” and in violation of international human rights law as well as Iranian law.
The opposition leaders have been under house arrest since February 2011 without being formally charged or put on trial.
The Campaign welcomes that the WGAD has added its voice of “grave concern” in requesting that the Iranian government and its leader Ayatollah Khamenei “immediately release Mousavi, Karroubi and Rahnavard.”
Hadi Ghaemi, a spokesman for the Campaign, says: “There are no justifications for these illegal arrests; in the past two years, no charges have been laid, no law has been referred to and no judicial process has taken place.”
“So long as the two candidates of the 2009 elections remain under house arrest,” Ghaemi added, “the coming elections in June 2013 can have no trace of legitimacy.”
The head of Iran’s Security forces, Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam, confirmed in a previous interview with Keyhan that Ayatollah Khamenei is directly responsible for the opposition leaders’ situation under house arrest.
Former President Mohammad Khatami has also referred to the plight of these leaders on several occasions, saying: “The continued house arrest of MirHosein Mousavi, Rahnavard and Karroubi in not in the interests of the country.”
