News

(3 March 2011) Iranian officials should immediately end the illegal, incommunicado detention of four leading opposition figures: Mehdi Karroubi; Mir Hossein Mousavi; Fatemeh Karroubi; and Zahra Rahnavard, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.

The Campaign warns that the incommunicado nature of their eighteen day long detention in an undisclosed location increases the likelihood that the four are facing psychological and physical torture for the purposes of extracting false confessions.

“Arbitrary and incommunicado detention in unknown locations is often associated with torture and ill treatment, and even extrajudicial execution in Iran,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign’s spokesperson.

“Time and again opposition figures in Iran are detained without contact with their families or lawyers, only to undergo abuse and appear on TV weeks later confessing to baseless charges,” he said.

Iranian intelligence and security services have a well-established track record of relying on torture against opponents to extract false confessions while held in incommunicado detention.

Mousavi and Karroubi’s children have had no access to their parents and are extremely concerned about their well-being and health. In a statement issued today, Mousavi’s daughters said they attempted to visit their parents on the evening of 2 March in their home, but were turned away by guards.