Families of election detainees appeal to Iranian clergy

Families of detained advisers of opposition leader, MirHosein Mousavi, visited Iran’s top Shiite leaders to complain regarding the judiciary’s failure to process the files of their kin.

The families of three top Mousavi aides, Ali Arabmazar, Alireza Beheshti and Ghorban Behzadian-nejad travelled to Qom to meet with Ayatollahs Vahid Khorasani, Mousavi Ardebili and Bayat Zanjani and seek their advice regarding the continued incarceration of their kin, which they maintain is “legally unjustifiable.”

They maintain that the three detainees are deprived of any rights and even the chance to meet with them which was finally allowed for the first time on March 11, was only accomplished after writing innumerable letters to judicial authorities.

The families also announced that they plan on more meetings with top members of the clergy in the coming days.

Ali Arabmazar, Alireza Beheshti and Ghorban Behzadian-nejad were arrested last December. Behzadian-nejad, who was also arrested last June and later released on bail, was Deputy of the Ministry of Health in the government of reformist president, Mohammad Khatami.

Alireza Beheshti Shirazi, the editor-in-chief of Kalameh daily newspaper, and Ali Arabmazar, an economics lecturer at Allameh Tabatabai University are both top Mousavi aides.

Following the protests to the re-election of Mahmoud Ahamdinejad in the June presidential elections which protesters claim was rigged, numerous political activists and people connected with disputing candidates MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have been imprisoned by the Islamic Republic government.