Watchdog

Thirty-three political prisoners have written an open letter calling for the release from strict house arrest of Iranian opposition figures Mir Hossein Musavi and Mehdi Karrubi, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports.

In the letter, the signatories condemned the Iranian government's illegal imprisonment of political leaders, while likening Musavi's detention to "kidnapping."

In their statement, the prisoners wrote: "It is for the good of the nation that both Musavi and Karrubi remain in the administration; they are the only defense against the scandal that the preelection coup has revealed."

Signatories of the letter included a number of political activists, including Mostafa Tajzadeh, Mohsen Mirdamadi, Ramadan Abdullah Zadeh, and Alireza Rajai Faizullah.

Musavi and Karrubi, who were both unsuccessful reformist candidates in the 2009 presidential election, have been under house arrest since February, when they called for the first Green Movement opposition demonstrations in more than a year.

Both have announced they are wiling to respond to the allegations in court, but have been denied that opportunity by the government.

Iran's chief prosecutor, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, maintains that "house arrest for them is in their interest."

Karrubi, who has been kept in virtual solitary confinement for the past seven months, was allowed to see his family for the first time last week. They said he was in reasonable physical and mental health.

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The wife of a jailed Iranian religious scholar says she is shocked at his poor state of health after five weeks in prison, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports.

Ahmad Ghabel at the end of July began serving a 20-month prison sentence in the northeastern city of Mashhad for spreading propaganda against the regime and insulting the supreme leader.

In an interview with Radio Farda on September 4, Ghabel's wife, Marzieh Pasdar, said she was "shocked" when visiting her husband in jail.

"He could barely walk…my daughter and I had to hold his arms to help him; he had to pause three times before reaching the chair," Pasdar said.

She added that her husband could not keep his balance and had vision problems. She said he told her he had been taken to the prison infirmary but could not be diagnosed.

In addition to his prison sentence, Ghabel is also banned for three years from granting interviews and delivering lectures to an audience of more than three persons.

In an interview with Radio Farda in June, Ghabel accused the Iranian leadership of "moral degeneration", saying the authorities in the establishment including the supreme leader insist on lying.

Ghabel has been detained several times before, including in December 2009 when he was on his way to the funeral of leaders dissident cleric Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri. He was released on bail after serving nearly six months in Vakilabad prison.

Ghabel was also imprisoned in September 2010. His wife told Radio Farda at the time that the reason for his detention was the information he had published about secret executions carried out in Vakilabad prison.

He was also arrested in 2001 after writing an open letter critical of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and spent 125 days in solitary confinement in Tehran's Evin prison.

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