“The political behavior of some Revolutionary Guards commanders has brought about political instability and created a despotism”
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Detained opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi has challenged Iran’s Supreme Leader in a letter published on social media on Tuesday.
Mehdi Karroubi, held under strict house arrest since February 2011, wrote that Ayatollah Khamenei should be blamed for Iran’s chaotic political, economic, cultural and social situation. He criticized the Supreme Leader for authorizing the political and economic activities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Basij militia, with consequences hindering Iran’s attempted recovery after the July 2015 nuclear deal.
He accused the Guards of corruption, including unlawful acquisition of industrial companies and plants, and asserted:
The political behavior of some IRGC commanders has brought about political instability and created a despotism that has deprived the nation of its political rights and has put an end to the idea of the regime being a republic.
Karroubi, 80, is a former reformist Speaker of Parliament. He was a candidate in the disputed 2009 Presidential election. His fellow candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mousavi’s wife, academic and artist Zahra Rahnavard, are also still under house arrest after almost seven years.
The Green Movement leader protested the interventions of Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, in the 2005 and 2009 Presidential elections, naming the Guards and Basij militia as accomplices.
He then returned to criticism of the Supreme Leader for ignoring the people’s will and demands, with the blocking of popular candidates from elections, devoting much of Iran’s budgets to conservative seminaries, and reducing the Assembly of Experts — which nominally chooses and can replace the Supreme Leader — to “a bunch of irresponsible clerics” whose job is to please Khamenei.
Iranian-American and Wife Given Long Prison Sentences
Iranian-American dual national Karan Vafadari and his wife Afarin Neyssar, art gallery owners in Tehran, have been given long prison sentences.
Vafadari was given 27 years and Neyssar, who is a US permanent residency, was given 16 for being Zoroastrians.
The terms are the latest in a series of punishments for dual nationals and their relatives. Other political prisoners include Anglo-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, given a 5-year sentence and threatened with a longer term; Iranian-American oil executive Siamak Namazi and his 81-year-old father Baquer, a former UNICEF official, each given 10-year sentences; Chinese-American historian Xijue Wang, handed a 10-year term; and Lebanese activist and US permanent resident Nizar Zaka, also serving 10 years.
Vafadari and Neyssar were seized by the Revolutionary Guards in July 2016. Little information has come out about their case since then.
Vafadari wrote to a letter, dated July 21, that he was sentenced “last week” by Judge Abolghassem Salavati of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court. Salavati is known for harsh sentences on political prisoners.
