Semira N. Nikou
Iran has tightened the squeeze on Green Movement leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi amid opposition attempts to mobilize new protests. The regime has dodged persistent questions about whether the two leaders—both prominent figures in the 1979 revolution—and their wives have been imprisoned or formally charged with crimes.
Parliament increased pressure with an official new report on March 2 demanding that the two men be tried. After new protests began on February 14, Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie had pledged that the judiciary would deal “firmly and swiftly” with perpetrators of unrest.
Neighbors and family members claim that the two men and their wives were taken from their homes in late February. Human rights advocates say they ended up at Heshmatieyh prison in eastern Tehran. But Tehran’s chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi denied the reports. Officials have claimed that the opposition leaders are still in their homes but have effectively been silenced by cutting off their access to communications.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson called the incident an internal matter. Iranian officials have increasingly blamed the United States, Britain and other foreign powers for the new round of protests. The following are official statements about Mousavi, a former prime minister, and Karroubi, a former speaker of parliament.
Iranian Parliament report on March 2
"Those like Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who called and prepared the ground to make the nation insecure on February 14, deserve firm legal action… Based on available evidence and documents, this committee deems the prosecution of Mousavi and Karroubi with their affiliates and collaborators to be necessary, and frankly announces that the parliament can no longer accept any justification for not taking action [against them]."
"The intervention of embassies and their elements in the 2009 sedition and the February 14 American-Israeli and British rebellion is totally unacceptable…The foreign ministry is obliged to decisively confront this illegal impudence, which is contrary to international regulations.
Ramin Mehmanparast, Foreign Ministry spokesman
"These issues are our internal affairs. No country is allowed and will not be allowed to interfere in our internal affairs." March 1, 2011
Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie, prosecutor general
"The first step has been taken, which was to block their relations, including their comings and goings and their telephone and non-telephone relations." Feb. 28, 2011
“The published news by some hostile media regarding the transfer of Mr. Mousavi and Mr. Karroubi to Heshmatiyeh detention center is false,” March 1, 2011, Iranian Students News Agency
"These people are at their homes. But some communication restrictions have been implemented against them." March 2, 2011
Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, chief prosecutor for Tehran
"There is a limit to lies, and rumors of transferring Mr. Mousavi and Karroubi to a prison are a sheer lie…Using the term house arrest is not correct. Mr. Mousavi and Karroubi, along with their wives, are in their homes." March 2, 2011
Statements Questioning the Government Crackdown
Statement by the Association of Teachers and Scholars of Qom on March 3
“For what offense have Mousavi, the prime minister of the painful years of the imposed war [with Iraq] who was always supported by the Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini]; Mehdi Karroubi, the loyal and trusted friend of the Imam who was appointed by him to various posts and was the head of the legislative branch for eight years and has spent years aiding the veterans of the war and families of the martyrs of the war and the Revolution; Dr. Zahra Rahnavard, the Qur'an scholar, the moral artist, and the thinker who is our pride, and Fatemeh Karroubi, the great manager who always helped those who sacrificed for the war, been arrested and denied their religious and lawful rights?" Tehran Bureau
Mir Hossein Mousavi’s daughters
"We, the children of Mousavi and (his wife Zahra) Rahnavard, utterly reject the report denying our parents' detention in the prison of Heshmatiyeh…The only way to disprove the report of their arrest is by us meeting them immediately at our father's home. Given the evidence over the past days and weeks, we are certain that our parents are not at home."Interview with Kalemeh, a website affiliated with Mousavi, on Feb. 28, 2011
Ali Motahari, conservative lawmaker
"We must hear the voice of the opposition and critics, and they must be given the right to peaceful demonstrations…I believe that this way we could end this matter much better. We have been making idols and making the problems appear grave."
"There is no doubt that the February 14 events were illegal and inappropriate, but we must also look at our own actions. Most of our media, including the national broadcaster Seda va Sima and a number of newspapers, kept instigating and demeaning protesters over the past year and writing things like 'You are finished, you are not a cipher, you are already executed, you have no supporters' and thus have been asking them for a fight." Feb. 26, 2011, Radio Zamaneh
Mohammad Khatami, former president
“Why should people such as Mr. Mousavi and Mr. Karroubi with their stellar background in the revolution and the Islamic Republic and complete faith in the substance of the regime and the Revolution be under house arrest and subjected to such restrictions?”
"If all the senior officials that have enjoyed the approval of the Imam (Khomeini), the people and the leadership, are now to be regarded as corrupt, deviant and anti-Revolutionaries, would not the people of the world be right to wonder if the outcome of the Revolution is merely corruption and deviance?” Comments in a meeting with academics and clergy quoted on Radio Zamaneh. Feb. 26, 2011.
Semira Nikou works for the Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention at the U.S. Institute of Peace.