Mehdi Karroubi (right) with fellow Green Movement leader Mir Hossein Mousavi before their house arrests in February 2011
Hopes have been raised for the freeing of Iran’s opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, after 9 1/2 years under house arrest to check protests against the regime.
For the second time in a month, Iranian media have published a photo of Mehdi Karroubi, a former Parliament Speaker and candidate in the disputed 2009 Presidential election, meeting with political activists.
Saham News, the site of the Green Movement that was created amid the mass protests in 2009, hinted that authorities may lift the house arrest. It was imposed in February 2011 on Karroubi, fellow 2009 candidate and former President Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Mousavi’s wife, activist, artist, and academic Zahra Rahnavard.
There is no sign of an easing of restrictions on Mousavi, the leading challenger in 2009 before the regime announced that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had “won”, or on Rahnavard.
Saham said Karroubi told reformist activists that his main concerns are essential reforms and the social and economic situation of Iranians: “He also spoke about historic events to explain current developments in Iran in addition to local threats and problems.”
Visitors to Karroubi included reformist politician Gholamhossein Karbaschi and the editor-in-chief of a reformist newspaper. Earlier this month, he met members of the Etemad-e Melli Party.
After the meeting, Etemad-e Melli member said Karroubi had emphasized that next year’s Presidential elections must be held with “great splendor” and enthusiastic participation.
But Karroubi issued a statement refuting Dousti’s account as “his own interpretation”. The Green Movement leader said his positions will only be expressed in writing or through family members.
Despite the strict house arrest, Karroubi has periodically issued statements challenging the Supreme Leader and the Government, including over the regime’s repression of mass protests.
The Iranian currency continues to slide against the dollar: https://bonbast.com/
The rial is about an eighth its value compared to when Rouhani assumed office in 2013.
Cool. Let another extremist take office. I’m sure they’ll rig it that way anyways. We’re always looking for another excuse to teach imperial Iran another lesson. Since they didn’t learn after soleimani was blown to pieces.
” Mousavi, the leading challenger in 2009 before the regime announced that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had “won””
Just to clarify. The Interior Ministry announced the results based on the reporting of local officials and workers who did the vote count. In a move for the sake of transparency, all of the individual ballot box counts (about 46,000) were published and not one has been found to have been tampered with or incorrect. The three opposition candidates’ representatives witnessed the count and signed off on the results.
An American lawyer, Eric Brill, analyzed the claims of fraud in the election and dismissed all of them: https://brill-law.com/iran2009election-100710.pdf
Nice to see you still defending, denying, and lying about the rape, torture, and murder committed by the corrupt, imperialist Iranian dictatorship. Who exactly do you think you are convincing with your ludicrous lies?
The electoral victory for Ahmadinejad in 2009 was no lie.
As for rape, torture and murder….police forces across the U.S do a pretty good job of that.
@kevin, tyrants push themselves to a corner with no escape route and one day they find themselves dangling from a tree by the neck or a sword up their rear end. Reza thinks he and his clan are immune to that.