Seventy distinguished academics from North American universities have urged the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, to break his silence over the ongoing house arrests of the country’s opposition leaders.



In a letter written on the seventh anniversary of the disputed 2009 presidential election, the signatories asked Rouhani to use his position as the highest elected official in Iran to speak out about the plight of Mir Hossein Mousavi, his wife Zahra Rahnavard and Mehdi Karroubi.



The three critics have been confined to their homes since their movements were restricted without trial in February 2011. Mousavi and Karroubi were among the four presidential candidates in the 2009 vote, the disputed result of which gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term in office.



While acknowledging Rouhani’s limited ability to intervene in the affairs of the judiciary, which acts independently of his administration, the academics said the president should speak out to protest what they called a “grave miscarriage of justice”.



“For over six years, they have faced the hardships of unwarranted punishment, and all three suffer from multiple ailments. They are, respectively, 79, 75 and 71,” read the letter, first published by the Guardian on Tuesday. “First and foremost, ours is an ethical and humanitarian plea.”

MIT’s Noam Chomsky, City University of New York’s Ervand Abrahamian and Duke University’s Mohsen Kadivar are among the signatories.

“No legal system among nations, including Islamic law that forms the basis of the legal system in the Islamic Republic of Iran, justifies the punishment of citizens without due legal process. Placing political dissidents under house arrest is a transparent example of such persecution.



“What compels us to address our letter to you is to protest against your silence toward this grave miscarriage of justice. Unless and until effective steps are taken by your administration to address this situation, including preparing the grounds for a public legal trial of the accused in a credible court, the international community will not be convinced of your administration’s resolve to make effective domestic reforms.”

Mousavi and Rahnavard’s house, down a dead-end alley in Tehran called Akhtar, is under constant heavy guard by the police. Karroubi is enduring similar circumstances in the Jamaran neighbourhood in north Tehran.



They have largely been kept incommunicado, although recently they have been allowed regular visits by some immediate family members. There are serious concerns about their health: an image of Mousavi that emerged in May 2014 showed him in a Tehran hospital bed due to a heart condition.



Speaking to the Guardian on Tuesday, Karroubi’s son said there had been little change in his father’s situation. “Two years and four months ago, my father was transferred to his private residence in Jamaran after previously being kept in accommodation belonging to the intelligence apparatus,” Mohammad-Taghi Karroubi said.

“Not much has changed. The guards stay in the lower floor, while my dad lives in the upper floor with my mum. Family visits by his children [and] his access to newspapers have got slightly better, but apart from that the situation is the same,” he said.



Unlike Rahnavard, Karroubi’s wife, Fatemeh, is currently allowed to leave the house. Karroubi has undergone six operations since his movements have been restricted, his son said, five of which derive from problems related to his house arrest.



In a separate letter published by the opposition website Kaleme on Tuesday, Narges Mohammadi, a prominent human-rights activist who is currently imprisoned, asked Rouhani to protest against the continuing harassment and persecution of civil-rights activists in the country.

A revolutionary court in Tehran recently condemned Mohammadi to a 16-year jail sentence on top of the six-year term she is serving, in spite of condemnation from the UN and other international groups.



The full letter



12 June 2016

To the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran

His Excellency, Dr Hasan Rouhani,

We, the undersigned, a group of university professors in North America, would like to bring a humanitarian request to your attention in your capacity as the highest elected official of the Islamic Republic of Iran.



We request your urgent attention to the continued house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard, three prominent political critics of the Islamic Republic of Iran who have been placed under house arrest since February 2011. For over six years, they have faced the hardships of unwarranted punishment, and all three suffer from multiple ailments. They are, respectively, 79, 75 and 71. First and foremost, ours is an ethical and humanitarian plea.



Recalling that during the elections of 2013 you introduced yourself as a man committed to upholding the rule of law, we find it most suitable to request that you address this issue as such. No legal system among nations, including Islamic law that forms the basis of the legal system in the Islamic Republic of Iran, justifies the punishment of citizens without due legal process. Placing political dissidents under house arrest is a transparent example of such persecution.

Mir Hossein Mousavi has been the last person to hold the office of prime minister in the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1981 to 1989; Mehdi Karroubi headed the Islamic consultative council (the Iranian parliament) (1989-92 and 2000-04); and Ms Zahra Rahnavard has served as rector of Al-Zahra Women’s University in Tehran, 1998-2006. Mr Karroubi and Mr Mousavi both had run for president in 2009, and like a sizeable part of the nation’s populace they protested against what they considered malfeasance and fraud in the electoral process. The fact that responsible criticism from such high-profile individuals is not tolerated in the Islamic Republic of Iran indicates the difficulty ordinary citizens face in voicing their criticism of the political process in Iran.

We acknowledge that lifting the detention imposed on these individuals goes beyond the authority of the executive branch in the Islamic Republic. What compels us to address our letter to you is to protest against your silence toward this grave miscarriage of justice. Unless and until effective steps are taken by your administration to address this situation, including preparing the grounds for a public legal trial of the accused in a credible court, the international community will not be convinced of your administration’s resolve to make effective domestic reforms.

Mr President, we implore you to take immediate and effective measures to end the house arrest against Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard and Mehdi Karroubi. We also ask you to honor your pledge and to bring about the release of all the other unjustly incarcerated political prisoners. As stated in Mr Karroubi’s open letter of April 9, 2016, should the lifting of his house arrest fall beyond your ability, we request that at least the accused are granted their day in court to defend themselves.

Thank you for your earnest attention.

Yours truly,