Nobel laureate urges Iran to release detainees

Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi urged Iran's government to release detained activists and citizens accused of involvement in the country's postelection unrest, saying the president must "listen to the people's voice."

Hundreds of people in Iran have been detained following massive demonstrations protesting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's June 12 re-election. On Sunday, Iran's police chief acknowledged that some of the detained protesters were abused in custody, but said the death of some prisoners was caused by illness not torture.

However, Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, said in an interview with The Associated Press in Seoul that police tortured some detainees to death, and that one prison was even given permission by the government to torture. She did not explain how she knew this.

"What I want to criticize the government for is why they arrested and tortured them though they engaged in peaceful rallies," Ebadi said, speaking in Farsi through interpreters. "The government's violence should be immediately stopped and those arrested after the election should be released."

Police chief Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam acknowledged that protesters were beaten by their jailers at Kahrizak detention center on Tehran's southern outskirts. Rights groups say at least three people died after being detained at the facility.

"This detention center was built to house dangerous criminals. Housing people related to recent riots caused an outbreak of diseases," the official IRNA news agency quoted Moghaddam as saying.

Ebadi said the Iranian government should provide compensation to the families of the dead detainees and also hold a new election under United Nations supervision.

"The president was already inaugurated but people are still protesting," she said. "What I want to say (to him) the most is he should listen to the people's voice."

At least 30 people were killed in unrest that followed the election as hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets to protest Ahmadinejad's victory, according to Iran's parliament. Human rights groups believe the number is far greater, and Ebadi put the death toll at about 100.

Ebadi also said Iran should give up its nuclear development program, saying it will only trigger harsher international sanctions that will hurt the lives of ordinary Iranians.

Iran has had a long-running dispute with the United States and other Western countries over its nuclear program. The U.S. and its allies suspect Iran intends to produce nuclear weapons, while Iran says it only aims to generate electricity.

Ebadi, 62, won the Nobel prize for her work on behalf of women and children in Iran. She was the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to win the prize.

She arrived in South Korea on Saturday at the invitation of the Seoul-based Asia Journalist Association. She is to receive a peace prize in South Korea later this week.