Reza Pahlavi Demands Release of All Iranian Political Prisoners;
Calls on International Community to Lend Support

8/3/2006 1:00:00 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FAIRFAX, Va., Aug. 3 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In a tribute to Akbar Mohamadi, the Iranian dissident who died this week, while in custody of the Islamic Republic, Reza Pahlavi of Iran issued a statement eulogizing the selfless courage and commitment of the student leader to freedom and democracy. Praising Akbar Mohamadi's valor, in spearheading the struggle against the evil and autocratic regime of Iran, Reza Pahlavi said, "seven long and terrible years of torture and abuse, tragically ended for our courageous compatriot; Akbar Mohamadi was murdered, in effect, executed by the criminal jailers who carried out orders issued at the highest levels of the regime."

Akbar Mohamadi was among the first of thousands arrested in 1999 when students rioted, in demonstration against the tyranny of the clerical regime. He was sentenced to death, which, under intense international pressure, was commuted to 15 years in prison. Recently he had been released, on medical furlough, but was rearrested leading to his death.

Expressing outrage over the regime's continued irreverence for human rights, justice, transparency and civility; Reza Pahlavi issued three demands and called on the world community to lend its support for it:

1) The immediate, independent and internationally supervised, investigation into the circumstances of Akbar Mohamadi's death, and the speedy bringing of justice to all responsible parties;

2) The unconditional and immediate inspection of prisons throughout Iran, by appropriate International NGOs for the purpose of identifying and registering thousands of undocumented prisoners;

3) The unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners held by the regime, estimated to number in the several thousands -- according to the clerical regime itself.

Reza Pahlavi, who has been leading a campaign of political defiance against the theocracy of Iran, called on all relevant international organizations, advocates of human rights, the international news media and democratic governments to lend their support for these demands and asked that they join in the growing calls for justice against the progressively brutal atrocities of the clerical regime of Iran.

Reza Pahlavi is the former Crown Prince of Iran, author of Winds of Change, the Future of Democracy in Iran, an accomplished jet-fighter pilot, and father to three daughters.

http://www.usnewswire.com/