HUMAN rights campaigners are appealing for pressure on Iran to release thousands of detainees arrested for taking part in mass protests.

The Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights (Codir) warns that prisoners’ lives may be in danger, pointing to evidence that one protester, 22-year-old Sina Ghanbari, died on January 6 in “unclear circumstances” while held in the quarantine section of Tehran’s Evin Prison.

In exchanges with two Iranian MPs, the intelligence and security forces have claimed that Mr Ghanbari committed suicide.