Families of Iranian detainees to stage protests

NOROOZ WEBSITE-some of the recent detainees

Families of Iranian political prisoners who have been detained since the protests against the outcome of the June presidential elections in Iran have announced that they will stage a peaceful protest on October 28 to demand the freedom of their loved ones.

They have also warned that if the officials “pretend no to see us or hear our message” we will sit in strike.

They add that if their “strikes and gatherings” prove fruitless, they will go on a “collective hunger strike” so that “those who have been blinded and gone deaf with power may come to their senses.”

On June 18, these families also wrote to Qom scholars and clerics to “seek justice” for their families.

In their new announcement today, posted on Norooz website, they have declared that at the same time, they will take their demands to “international human rights and legal organizations” and that they will not stop until they have achieved the “liberation of (their) enchained family."

The families maintain that they have lost heart in “seeking justice through the constitutional and religious rights of the citizens.” They add that they have achieved nothing through legal procedures, issuing announcements and meeting with Shiite clerics.

Yesterday, Farhad Tajari, member of the special committee in charge of investigating the situation of post-election detainees, announced that the detainees who have received their trial could possibly be released on bail.

Following the disputed June presidential election in Iran, over 4000 people were arrested and about 100 of them have been presented in mass trials so far.

Members of several reform groups such as the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Mujahedin of the Islamic Revolution, Islamic Executives of Construction and Association of Combatant Clerics are amongst the prominent figures that have been put to trial so far.

Saeed Hajjarian, member of the Participation Front and Javad Emam member of Mujahedin of the Islamic Revolution were recently released on bail.

20 members of the Participation Front were arrested in the post-election events and several of its executive members are still in prison.

To date the authorities have held five mass trials in which most defendants have recanted their claims of fraud in the elections and incriminated themselves in a conspiracy to topple the government. The trials have been criticized and the so-called confessions of the defendants are widely considered to be coerced.