PRESS RELEASE
Hunger Strike in Support of the Iranian People
and
for the Release of Political Prisoners
Date: July 22-24
Location: United Nations Building, New York
Contact: (720) 317 1016 or iraniandemocracypetition@
The people of Iran have, with their vast presence in the June 12 presidential elections, showed that despite the fundamental faults of the electoral system in Iran, they preferred to change their destiny by peaceful and democratic means. Unfortunately the government did not respect the right of Iranian citizens to effectively participate in determining their destiny. With widespread fraud, it violated this basic right of the Iranian people on a vast scale and blatantly unleashed massive repression against its own people. Even more regrettably, the government that emerged from the coup resorted to extreme and merciless brutality against the wave of peaceful protests and arrested a large number of political activists, intellectuals, reporters, and ordinary people, in violation of legal procedures, and dispatched them to solitary confinement. According to reliable reports, the detainees are subjected to various forms of extreme psychological and physical pressure to confess to crimes they have not committed.
In solidarity with the Iranian people’s Green Movement and condemning the widespread electoral fraud, the merciless repression of the popular protests, and the illegal arrest of hundreds of citizens and activists in Iran, we the undersigned are going on hunger strike between 22 to 24 June in front of the UN building in New York. We intend to have the voice of the long-suffering Iranian people to be heard. We ask the responsible members of the world community to demand the release of all the recent prisoners. Considering the alarming condition of the recent detainees, with their health and even lives in jeopardy, we demand they be visited by representatives of the General Secretary of the UN and immediately freed.
In addition, we the undersigned call on all our compatriots living in the United States to join this protest, meeting on the above-mentioned dates in front of the UN to declare their solidarity with Iranian people’s Green Movement during these dangerous and crucial days.
Signers:
1. Kazem Alamdari 2. Ali Banuazizi 3. Abdol-Ali Bazargan 4. Hossein Bashiriyeh 5. Mohammad Borghei 6. Hamid Dabashi 7. Reza Fani-Yazdi 8. Mansour Farhang 9. Nehzat Farnoody 10. Akbar Ganji 11. Fatemeh Haqiqatjoo 12. Nader Hashemi 13. Abdee Kalantari 14. Hossein Kamali 15. Mehrangiz Kar 16. Ahmad Karimi Hakkah 17. Mehrdad Mashayekhi 18. Ali Mirsepassi 19. Majid Mohammadi 20. Arash Naraghi 21. Ali Reza’I 22. Mostafa Rokhsefat 23. Ahmad Sadri 24. Mahmoud Sadri 25. Ebrahim Soltani 26. Nayereh Tohidi 27.Shirin Neshat
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Supporters:
1.Ervand Abrahamian 2. Janet Afary 3. Taher Ahmadzadeh 4. Mehrzad Boroujerdi 5. Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari 6. Mohsen Ghaemmagham 7. Ali Keshtegar 8. Moussavi Khoeiniha 9. Mohsen Makkmalbaf 10. Reza Moini 11. Mohammad Reza Nikfar 12. Shahrnoush Parsipour 13. Ali Qodsi 14. Masoumeh Shafiee 15. Abdolkarim Soroush 16. Soheila Vahdati
