Pressrelease: Akbar Ganji starts hungerstrike in favor of Iranian detainees

IRAN: The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) strongly condemns the systematic stifling by the Iranian government of voices for democracy and dissent through detention, or worse.

Geneva, 13 July 2006. Tomorrow renowned Iranian human rights activist Akbar Ganji, winner of the Martin Ennals Award in 2006, who was imprisoned for six years himself, will start with a three day global hunger strike in front of the United Nations in New York to demand the release of three prominent Iranian prisoners of conscience. These three men, Professor Ramin Jahanbegloo, Mr. Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoini and Mr. Mansoor Oasanloo represent Iran’s intellectual, student, and labour movements, without whom greater aspiration of democracy and freedom in Iran are barely impossible.

Professor Ramin Jahanbegloo, a leading public intellectual and a international renowned scholar, has been detained since the end of April 2006 on the accusation of collusion with the United States and attempts ‘to overthrow the regime under the guise of intellectual work by peaceful means’.

Mr. Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoini is a former member of Parliament and currently the head of the influential Alumni association of Iran, which is one of the main coordinating organizations in Iran’s student movement. Already since a long period of time, Mr. Mousavi Khoini has been at the forefront of human rights in Iran, advocating for whoever has needed him, especially students, workers, and political prisoners. On 12 June 2006 he participated in the 12 June 2006 Women’s Rights protest, leading to his arrest.

As a prominent labour leader and president of the Syndicate of Workers of the Tehran Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed), Mr. Mansoor Osanloo has been tireless in his fight for an independent union and his insistence on the need for fundamental worker rights in Iran including freedom of association and collective bargaining. As a result of his actions, Mr. Osanloo has been beaten, tortured, had his tongue cut out. Since 22 December 2005 he is detained for unspecified charges for an unknown period of time.

The International Secretariat of OMCT is gravely concerned by the continues violations of universal human rights in Iran that inflicts all sectors of public life and therefore calls on the Iranian authorities to guarantee the respect of the international human rights standards and fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national law, international humanitarian law and human rights standards.



Geneva, 13 July 2006