(AFP) - 2 days ago

WASHINGTON - Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel and 44 other Nobel prize winners offered their support Monday for Iranian dissidents, including fellow Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, telling them: "Do not lose hope."

The open letter, published as a full-page advertisement in The New York Times, was signed by Nobel laureates from several countries, including Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.

"We, the undersigned Nobel laureates, strongly condemn the flagrant human rights violations in the wake of the recent presidential election in Iran," it said.

The letter, paid for by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, was published in the Times and the International Herald Tribune as Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei endorsed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election.

The controversial Iranian president's victory in June elections had been strongly contested, and triggered a series of opposition protests by Iranians who said the vote was rigged.

Wiesel told AFP the letter, which said the election had been "shamelessly tampered with," was intended to ensure that protestors in Iran "did not feel abandoned."

"For me, the worst torture is to feel you have been abandoned," the Holocaust survivor said.

Wiesel said he had not been in touch with Ebadi, fearing communication with the human rights lawyer might result in "retaliation" against her. Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her human rights efforts in Iran.