Dissident cleric Ayatollah Dastgheib urged the “powerful figures of the country” to work hard for the release of opposition leaders MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi as well as other political prisoners.
The Masjed Qoba website reported his statement last night, on Thursday August 8: “Among the powerful figures of the country, there are some who do not occupy an official post but their word can be very effective. Why do they not enter the scene and try to release Mr. Mousavi and Karroubi and political prisoners?”
Karroubi, Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard have been under house arrest since February of 2011, and the gradual return of the reformists into Iran’s political arena has raised hoped that these opposition leaders will be released.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, whom many have indicated is directly responsible for the fate of the jailed leaders, pardoned a number of prisoners on the occasion of the Muslim feast of Fetre Eid, but there were no political prisoners among those released.
