Updated: Thursday, July 30, 2009
11:00GMT—7:00AM/EST
Washington, 30 July (WashingtonTV)—United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday that he had not yet decided on whether to send a delegate to Iran to investigate reported human rights abuses there.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, and other activists and human rights groups have called on the UN chief to appoint a special representative to visit those arrested in the wake of Iran’s disputed presidential election, and to press for their release.
Speaking at a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York, Ban confirmed that he had received such a request directly, and that he was aware of their concerns.
“At this time, I have been very closely monitoring the situations which have been taking place in Iran. I’m still in the process of reviewing all the situations there,” he told reporters.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed landslide victory sparked mass street protests throughout Iran, which killed at least 20 people, according to officials. But some human rights groups say that the death toll was likely to be much higher.
Iran’s prosecutor-general, Qorban Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, said yesterday that a “considerable” number of those arrested during the post-election protests would be released by Friday.
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