Brussels, 14/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 14 February, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton once again called on the Iranian authorities to grant the right to freedom of movement to the leaders of the Iranian opposition, Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, and the latter's wife, Zahra Rahnavard. Those detained have been under house arrest for the past two years, Ashton's spokesman announced in a press release (see EUROPE 10553). Ashton underlined that the house arrest was “done without any legal process, in violation of Iran's international obligations to respect the fundamental rights of all its citizens”. She added that, despite repeated calls by the international community to remedy the situation (see EUROPE10567), they have had “severely limited access to visits”, including from their own family members, who have been harassed.
The S&D Group at the European Parliament also called for the political opposition members to be released. “We call on Iran to immediately release everyone detained for exercising their rights to freedom of speech, assembly, or association, and to cooperate with UN bodies in meeting its international commitments to human rights”, said Maria Muniz de Urquiza, S&D spokesperson on Iran, underlining that a further wave of arrests against journalists has been initiated by the security forces, with presidential elections due to be held in June. Her colleague, Ana Gomes, called on the High Representative to continue to speak about human rights issues during her contacts with her Iranian partners.
On 11 February, the Iranian authorities seized three of the children of the detainees for questioning, in order to have “explanations” for the prosecutors. Last month, two of the children had complained that they had not seen their parents for weeks. (CG/transl.jl)