Over 130 writers, intellectuals and university professors from around the world have called on Iran’s Supreme Leader to release Iranian political prisoners including Ebrahim Yazdi, the aging secretary general of the reformist party, Freedom Front of Iran. They add that at 80, Yazdi is the oldest political prisoner in Iran as well as in the world, and add that he has spent his life “promoting human rights in the Islamic world” and “democratic reforms in Iran.”

In a letter addressed to Ayatollah Khamenei, they write that the only crime of these detainees is peaceful protest against government policies. Noam Chomsky, Jurgen Habermas, John Esposito and Ariel Dorfma are cited amongst the signatories of this letter. The letter also notes that the continued imprisonment of activists such as Bahreh Hedayat, Majid Tavakoli, Emad Bahavar, Mansour Osanloo and Hoda Saber are “clear violation of the Iranian constitution” and “against the country’s international commitments.”

The letter, which has also been sent to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council), speaker of parliament Ali Larijani and head of the judiciary Sadegh Larijani, warns that indifference to human rights will lead to deterioration of the trust between the government and citizens, and adds that the fate of Iran’s former regime was the natural outcome of a similar situation in the political milieu of Iran.

The signatories call on the Supreme Leader to release all political prisoners and help realize the ideals of the 1979 Revolution.

Ebrahim Yazdi was arrested twice in the state crackdown on protests against the controversial victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2009 presidential elections. Yazdi has been involved in the Iranian political arena for decades and in 1979, he returned to Iran at the side Ayatollah Khomeini who was soon to establish the Islamic Republic in Iran. He has also served as foreign minister in the interim government of Mehdi Bazargan and an MP in the Islamic parliament.

source: Radio Zamaneh

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