Iran: Mehdi Karroubi 'House Arrest' after Protest Call
BBC: Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi has been put under house arrest, his official website says.

Security officials at the premises say the measures will last until next week, it adds. No one is being allowed to enter the house except his wife.

Mr Karroubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi, another opposition leader, had called for a rally on Monday to support the popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

The authorities refused permission, calling it a political move. >>> | Thursday, February 10, 2011

Iran Sanctions Strengthen Ahmadinejad Regime – Karroubi
THE GUARDIAN: Exclusive: Former presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi tells Guardian US and British policy is a gift to Ahmadinejad regime

Mehdi Karroubi, the leading reformist politician in Iran, says sanctions 'have given an excuse to the government to suppress the opposition by blaming them for the unstable situation of the country'. Photograph: The Guardian
Punitive international sanctions imposed on Iran have strengthened the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and assisted its post-election crackdown on the opposition Green movement, the leading reformist politician and former presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi has told the Guardian.

In his first interview with a British newspaper since widespread unrest erupted after Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election as president last June, Karroubi blamed the US and Britain for adopting counterproductive policies to combat Iran's suspect nuclear programme, describing sanctions as a gift to the Iranian regime.

"These sanctions have given an excuse to the Iranian government to suppress the opposition by blaming them for the unstable situation of the country," Karroubi said in emailed responses to the Guardian's questions.

Karroubi, 73, a former speaker of the Majlis (Iranian parliament) under the reformist president Mohammad Khatami, and a candidate in last year's election, said that isolating Iran would not bring democracy to the people.

"Look at Cuba and North Korea," he said. "Have sanctions brought democracy to their people? They have just made them more isolated and given them the opportunity to crack down on their opposition without bothering themselves about the international attention." >>> Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Iran Opposition Leader Mehdi Karoubi Escapes Mob Bullets After Mourning Victims
TIMES ONLINE: Iran’s most outspoken opposition leader has had a narrow escape after his car was hit by bullets as he fled from a mob of government supporters.

Mehdi Karroubi’s armoured car was hit at least twice as it pulled away from the angry crowd, breaking the front and back windows. Mr Karroubi was unhurt.

The shooting was an ominous development in the seven months of internal strife that have engulfed Iran since the hotly disputed presidential election in June that handed victory to President Ahmadinejad.

Mr Karroubi, 72, has been attacked with bricks and teargas before but never with bullets, and in recent days the regime has sharply increased its efforts to crush a resurgent opposition. It has fired on demonstrators and staged rallies that have demanded the execution of Mr Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, the other leader of the so-called Green Movement. >>> Martin Fletcher | Friday, January 08, 2010

Iranian Cleric Stands His Ground Against Authorities
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Under threat of arrest, Mehdi Karroubi continues to lead the charge against the state's crackdown on dissent after the disputed presidential election. 'I won't go underground,' he says.

Reporting from Tehran and Beirut - The white-turbaned cleric is an unlikely enemy of the Iranian state. He was a confidant of the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and served seven years as speaker of parliament.

But at 72, in the wake of Iran's disputed presidential election, Mehdi Karroubi has become the fiery heart of a protest movement that has shaken the republic's foundations.

"I feel I am obliged to defend the rights of people," Karroubi said Monday during a rare interview with a Western news organization at his sparse north Tehran office. "I want it to be remembered in the future by coming generations that somebody someday from the clerical establishment stood up for his stances and principles to defend the people."

On Tuesday, authorities stormed his party's headquarters in west Tehran. They seized documents, computers and photographs and arrested Mohammad Davari, editor of his website, a party spokesman said. They also arrested Ali-Reza Beheshti, the top aide to Karroubi's ally Mir-Hossein Mousavi, reformist websites reported.

Karroubi's popular daily newspaper was shut down weeks ago. Hard-line commanders of the Revolutionary Guard and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have repeatedly called for his arrest.

But Karroubi has continued to defy authorities, calling for opposition supporters to join in street rallies Sept. 18 during Quds Day celebrations, an annual march in support of Palestinians and against Israel. >>> Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi | Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Iranian Opposition Plans New Wave of Resistance amid Claims of Torture
'Some young people are beaten to death just for chanting slogans,' wrote Mr Karoubi. Photo: TimesOnline
TIMES ONLINE: Despite nine weeks of savage repression since Iran’s hotly disputed presidential election, opponents of the regime refuse to accept defeat. They accuse the Government of torturing political detainees. They spread samizdat DVDs, use paintball guns to obliterate government posters, and attack government websites.

Mehdi Karroubi, one of the defeated presidential candidates, kept up the public pressure this week by claiming that male and female detainees have been raped in the Evin and Kahrizak prisons in Tehran, and that political prisoners were being tortured to death.

“We observe that in an Islamic country some young people are beaten to death just for chanting slogans,” Mr Karoubi wrote on his website.

Other detainees “were forced to take off their clothes. Then they were made to go on their hands and knees and were ridden [by prison guards]. Or the prison authorities put them on top of each other while they were naked... Do such treatments conform with Islam, which is a religion of mercy?”

Mr Karoubi’s allegations, which are supported by Western human rights organisations, seemed designed to deepen rifts within the conservative establishment over the way detainees have been treated.

They certainly appeared to strike a nerve. The regime has denounced them as baseless, and demanded Mr Karoubi produce proof. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a hardline cleric, used his sermon at Friday prayers to demand that Mr Karoubi be prosecuted. He said that the accusations were “full of libel, a total slander against the Islamic system” that helped Iran’s enemies.

With the security forces brutally suppressing any street demonstrations, grassroots activists are adopting subtler methods of resisting a regime that they consider illegitimate.

They still chant “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) from the rooftops every night, and write anti-regime slogans on banknotes, but they are also daubing graffiti (“Death to basiji”, “Death to the dictator”) on walls across the capital and using paintball guns to obliterate posters of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, with green paint. Sometimes they simply paint a black X across his portrait. >>> Martin Fletcher | Friday, August 14, 2009

Iran Inmates 'Tortured to Death'
BBC: Iran's defeated opposition presidential candidate has said that some protesters held after last month's disputed poll were tortured to death in prison.

The claim by Mehdi Karroubi comes days after he said a number of prisoners, both male and female, had been raped. Officials deny the rape claims, but admit that abuses have taken place.

The BBC's Jon Leyne says the opposition uses the issue to maintain political pressure without directly questioning Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's poll victory.

On Thursday, Mr Karroubi alleged that a number of detainees had been tortured to death.

"Some young people are beaten to death just for chanting slogans in [post-election] protests," his website said.

Mr Karroubi also called for the formation of an independent committee to review his evidence in "a calm atmosphere".

On Sunday, the defeated presidential candidate claimed that some opposition protesters were raped in detention.

The claim was supported by a number of human rights groups but quickly dismissed as "totally baseless" by the speaker of Iran's parliament, Ali Larijani.

"Based on parliament's investigations, detainees have not been raped or sexually abused in Iran's Kahrizak and Evin prisons," said. >>> | Thursday, August 13, 2009