Nobel laureate urges Iran to free Britons

Seoul : Iran's Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi urged her home government yesterday to free five British sailors detained after their racing yacht entered into Iranian waters.

The British government said Monday that Iran is holding the five after their yacht, owned by Sail Bahrain, was stopped last Wednesday after entering inadvertently into Iranian waters while en route to join the Dubai-Muscat Offshore Sailing Race.

Iran would neither confirm nor deny yesterday that it is holding the sailors, with a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry saying the case was "being investigated."

The case was being closely watched because the detention could heighten tensions between Iran and major world powers, including Britain, that are demanding a halt to Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.

Yesterday, Ebadi, an Iranian human rights lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her efforts in promoting democracy, condemned the detention. She said that such border violations can happen by mistake at any time and that Iranian authorities should have first warned the sailors to leave the area.

"Unfortunately, in this case, instead of warning them to leave the area, they arrested them," she told a press conference in Seoul. "I believe that the Iranian government should immediately free them."

Ebadi also blasted Iranian authorities for confiscating her Nobel Prize medal and freezing bank accounts of her and her husband.