Washington, Jumada I 30, 1439, Feb 16, 2018, SPA -- The US State Department late on February 15 called on Iran to release the detained presidential candidates who have been under house arrest for seven years. The statement came on the seventh anniversary of the detention of 2009 Iranian presidential candidates Mehdi Karrubi and Mir Hossein Musavi, as well as Musavi's wife and women's rights advocate Zahra Rahnavard. "The continued house arrest of these three individuals contradicts Iran's international obligations, including those under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to provide minimum fair trial guarantees and not to subject citizens to arbitrary arrest or detention," said department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. "We join the international community in condemning the continued arbitrary detention of these three individuals without charges or fair trials and in calling for their immediate release and for the release of all prisoners of conscience unjustly detained in Iran," she said. --SPA 10:53 LOCAL TIME 07:53 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w613217