A number of political prisoners were given a temporary leave on Tuesday March 25, five days into the Iranian New Year.
The Kaleme opposition website reports that five prisoners linked to MirHosein Mousavi, a challenger of the 2009 presidential election, were given furloughs: Nader Jani, Nasor NAghipour, Hamidreza Karvasi, Mahmoud Bagheri , Abbas Ghafari and Emad Arab.
It had been reported earlier that the judiciary had cancelled the customary New Year furlough for political prisoners in reaction to the meeting in Tehran between EU diplomat Catherine Ashton and a number of women’s rights activists.
After the controversial meeting, which was denounced by several conservative figures in Iran, weekly visits for political prisoners were also cancelled.