Nobel laureate calls on U.N. chief to visit Iran
Reuters / Jon Herskovitz
10-Aug-2009

SEOUL (Reuters) - Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi on Tuesday called on the U.N. chief to visit Iran to receive a first-hand account of human rights abuses and warned against sanctions because they would hurt the Iranian people.

Iran's June 12 election, which secured hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, plunged Iran into its biggest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution, exposed deepening divisions in its ruling elite and set off a wave of protests that left 26 people dead.

"I ask U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to visit Iran," Ebadi told reporters in Seoul, where she picked up a local peace prize. "He must speak to the families whose members have been arrested or killed."

Ebadi contends that more than 100 people have been killed.

Ebadi, Iran's most famous human rights lawyer, was awarded the Nobel Peac... >>>

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