PHOTO: Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Zahra Rahnavard, held since February 2011
Iran’s Parliament was briefly suspended on Sunday after prominent MP Ali Motahari again called for the release of detained opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard.
Motahari, the son of a revered Ayatollah and relative of Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, denounced the 47-month house arrests of Mousavi and Karroubi — both candidates in the disputed 2009 Presidential election — and Mousavi’s wife Rahnavard as illegal and contrary to the Iranian Constitution.
The MP, who has repeatedly called for the opposition leaders to be formally charged over their “sedition” to resolve their status, also indirectly criticized the Supreme Leader.
Ayatollah Khamenei has rejected the release of the trio, saying that they are being treated generously with the house arrests — he maintained that, if they went to trial, they would suffer a worse fate and perhaps even face the death penalty.
When Motahari was physically attacked by legislators of the hardline Endurance Front, the Majlis was closed. The chair of the session, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Hassan Abutorabi Fard, told Motahari, “I don’t think your speech is appropriate; therefore, I will announce a 15-minute break.”
Two other MPs, Javad Jahangir Zadeh and Alireza Marandi — the personal physician of the Supreme Leader — challenged Motahari by denouncing the opposition leaders and supporting the house arrests,
Mousavi, Karroubi, and Rahnavard were shut away in their homes in February 2011, as the regime feared a revival of the mass protests after the 2009 Presidential election “won” by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
