LATEST: Before and After — The State of Activist Arash Sadeghi After 21 Months in Prison

SUMMARY: Concerns have been raised about the health of political dissident and 2009 Presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi (pictured), 32 months after he was placed under strict house arrest.

Lab results, obtained by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, show the 76-year-old Karroubi is suffering from a low level of vitamin D and osteoporosis.

Karroubi, a former Speaker of Parliament and leader of protests after the disputed 2009 Presidential election, was confined in February 2011. Fellow Presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife, activist and academic Zahra Rahnavard, also remain in detention.

Karroubi’s vitamin D deficiency is attributed to a lack of sunlight during his house arrest. Normal levels for vitamin D are between 30 and 70 anograms per milliliter — Karroubi’s are 13.

In a letter to President Rouhani, published last weekend, Karroubi’s wife Fatemeh wrote, “Despite claims by the regime, Ayatollah Karroubi is under house arrest at a location without access to sunlight and fresh air, and his physical conditions ‘have been seriously damaged as a result of deprivation of sunlight and fresh air’, according to the physician trusted by the security apparatus.”

A source close to Karroubi’s family said he does not see sunlight because all the windows are painted in the apartment where he is kept. Dring his “fresh air breaks,” he is taken to the building’s parking structure.

Karroubi’s son Taghi said:

My father’s physical health is very critical due to confinement in a closed space for nearly 1,000 days without proper access to sunlight and fresh air.

Because of the lack of sunlight, his bones are softening, and the lack of fresh air is adversely impacting his digestive system and his heart. Over the past six months security forces have taken him three times for treatment in two different hospitals in Tehran.

Taghi Karroubi continued:

It appears the state still wants to keep him under confinement and illegal house arrest, even though government officials, especially President Rouhani, are trying to put an end to this illegal situation.

Since the responsibility for his confinement rests with the Intelligence Ministry and, in contrast to the previous one Mr. Moslehi, the current Minister of Intelligence sees himself bound by law and religious edicts, it is the responsibility of the current government to immediately move my father to his own home even if his house arrest is to continue.

Before and After: The State of Activist Arash Sadeghi After 21 Months in Prison

Activist Arash Sadeghi was released on October 20, reportedly on $170,000 bail. He had been imprisoned since January 2012.

Iran Moves Closer to “Friends of Syria” and US, Welcomes Initiative for “Political Solution”

In another sign of Tehran’s movement towards the Friends of Syria — which includes the US and European powers as well as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf States — Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has welcomed Tuesday’s meeting of the group in London.

Abdollahian said it was encouraging to see the gathering put more emphasis on the importance of a political initiative, declaring that everyone should help Syria fight “terrorism” and “extremist” and “Takfiri” [Muslim heretic] forces.

Tehran has been warmed towards the line taken by the US since Washington pulled back from intervention in Syria after the Assad regime’s chemical weapons attacks of August 21.

Iran is hoping that, amid the recent rapprochment over nuclear talks, it can join high-level discussions on Syria’s future. The US has long resisted Tehran’s place at the top table.