A/HRC/25/26 respectively, on charges of gathering and colluding against national security and propaganda against the system. Their conviction was allegedly chiefly motivated by their work as journalists, including reporting on the human rights situation in Kurdistan Province.16 On 7 December 2013, Fatemeh Ekhtesari and Mehdi Mousavi, both poets, were arrested and transferred to Evin prison. They were allegedly incarcerated for their critical writing and dissenting views. They were reportedly released on bail after a month in detention. 5. Situation of human rights defenders 15. Since mid-September 2013, the Government has released over 80 political prisoners including women’s rights activists, political activists and journalists. Amongst those released were Nasrin Sotoudeh, an internationally recognized human rights activist and recipient of the European Parliament’s 2012 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought; Mahboubeh Karami, human rights activist and member of the One Million Signatures campaign; and Jila Karamzadeh-Makvandi, supporter of the Mothers of Laleh Park. The Secretary-General, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran welcomed the release of political prisoners and urged the Government to take further steps to ensure the release of all other political prisoners. 16. Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, an Iranian-Canadian citizen, who was arrested in May 2008 and sentenced to death on charges of muharaba and espionage, was released on 23 September 2013, after a retrial the previous August, when the court commuted his death penalty to five years of imprisonment.17 The Government also overturned the death sentence imposed on Saeed Malekpour, a blogger, who had been sentenced to death in 2010 on charges of management of pornographic websites.18 The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights welcomed the commutation of Mr. Malekpour’s sentence and encouraged the Government to release all those held for exercising their legitimate rights to freedom of expression and association. 17. Despite these welcome developments, a large number of political prisoners, including high-profile lawyers, human rights activists, women’s rights activists and journalists, continue to serve sentences for charges that are believed to be linked to the exercise of their freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly. The Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, in his latest report to the Human Rights Council,19 noted that the Government, similar to those of several other countries, repressed peaceful assemblies because the messages conveyed did not please them, and their organizers and participants were often charged with sedition and rioting. This was the case for the two former presidential candidates, Mehdi Karoubi and Hossein Mossavi, who remain under house arrest for, in February 2011, staging a rally in solidarity with protesters in Egypt, for which they had sought permission from the authorities. Since their arrest, neither has been formally charged or brought before a judge to contest the legality of their detention. On 7 January 2014, Mohammad Javad Larijani, head of the High Council for Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran was quoted as saying that, after a prolonged wait, a dossier against the opposition leaders was being processed.20 On 17 January 2014, Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, Minister of Justice, stated 16 17 18 19 20 Amnesty International, “Jailed journalist brothers sentenced” (13 December 2013), available at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE13/056/2013/en. Official news, Fars, 24 September 2013, available at http://farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=13920702000380. Official news, Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), 26 August 2013, available at www.isna.ir. A/HRC/23/39/Add.2. Official news, ISNA, 8 January 2014, available at http://www.isna.ir. 7