(Claudia Parsons, Reuters) - The family of an ethnic Armenian employee of a U.S.-based aid group who has been jailed in Iran for over a year said on Tuesday they hoped a post-election crackdown would have no bearing on their appeal for her release on humanitarian grounds.
The disputed June 12 poll sparked Iran's most vigorous internal unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution, but hardliners have regained the upper hand in recent days. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians joined street protests after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory was first declared, but riot police and religious militia have crushed protests since June 20, arresting many hundreds of people.
Silva Harotonian, 34, an Iranian citizen of Armenian descent, was working for a U.S. group that arranges educational exchanges when she was arrested on June 26 last year. Harotonian was based in Armenia for the International Research and Exchanges Board and was in Iran working on a U.S.-Iran exchange program for maternal and child health professionals.
"She's a humanitarian aid worker, she's not a politician, she's never been interested in politics," Klara Moradkhan, a cousin of Harotonian who lives in Los Angeles, told Reuters in an interview in New York.
In January, Harotonian was given a three-year jail term on charges of involvement in a U.S. funded plot to overthrow the Islamic system of government in Iran. She briefly shared a jail cell at Tehran's Evin prison with Roxana Saberi, a U.S.-born journalist who was released in May after authorities quashed her eight-year sentence for spying. Saberi and Moradkhan were both taking part in a news conference by human rights groups in New York on Tuesday to call from the immediate release of political prisoners in Iran, both those arrested before and after the election.
"For us Silva's situation happened a year ago, before any of this crackdown," Moradkhan said in the interview. "Silva's imprisonment from the beginning was a misunderstanding. We never thought her situation now has anything to do with what's going on (with the protests)." She appealed to Iranian authorities to show compassion and mercy and release Harotonian on humanitarian grounds.
The disputed June 12 poll sparked Iran's most vigorous internal unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution, but hardliners have regained the upper hand in recent days. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians joined street protests after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory was first declared, but riot police and religious militia have crushed protests since June 20, arresting many hundreds of people.
Silva Harotonian, 34, an Iranian citizen of Armenian descent, was working for a U.S. group that arranges educational exchanges when she was arrested on June 26 last year. Harotonian was based in Armenia for the International Research and Exchanges Board and was in Iran working on a U.S.-Iran exchange program for maternal and child health professionals.
"She's a humanitarian aid worker, she's not a politician, she's never been interested in politics," Klara Moradkhan, a cousin of Harotonian who lives in Los Angeles, told Reuters in an interview in New York.
In January, Harotonian was given a three-year jail term on charges of involvement in a U.S. funded plot to overthrow the Islamic system of government in Iran. She briefly shared a jail cell at Tehran's Evin prison with Roxana Saberi, a U.S.-born journalist who was released in May after authorities quashed her eight-year sentence for spying. Saberi and Moradkhan were both taking part in a news conference by human rights groups in New York on Tuesday to call from the immediate release of political prisoners in Iran, both those arrested before and after the election.
"For us Silva's situation happened a year ago, before any of this crackdown," Moradkhan said in the interview. "Silva's imprisonment from the beginning was a misunderstanding. We never thought her situation now has anything to do with what's going on (with the protests)." She appealed to Iranian authorities to show compassion and mercy and release Harotonian on humanitarian grounds.