Ejei: No Change in the Resolution of House Arrest for Mousavi, Karroubi, and Rahnavard

The spokesperson for Iran's judiciary once again announced that the Supreme National Security Council has made no changes to its 'resolution' regarding the house arrest of the leaders of the 2009 protests, and if the council's resolution changes, they will be tried. According to the news agency Mizan, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei stated on Tuesday, March 5, that the Supreme National Security Council determined that 'a judicial trial for those individuals at that time is not in the interest of the country and they should be confined.' He emphasized that the decision regarding the trial of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi must be made by the Supreme National Security Council and is 'not within the jurisdiction of the judiciary.' The judiciary spokesperson also warned that if the Supreme National Security Council changes its mind, 'the judiciary will fulfill its duty.' Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi have repeatedly called for a public trial. Judicial officials have previously stated that the house arrest of the leaders of the 2009 presidential election protests was decided by the Supreme National Security Council, and if the house arrest is lifted, their trial will be on the agenda. In contrast, Hassan Rouhani and his government officials have denied the existence of a resolution in the Supreme National Security Council regarding their house arrest. Meanwhile, some political figures, including Ali Motahari, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, consider the house arrest of individuals without trial to be unconstitutional. Mr. Motahari and some other parliament members have recently expressed hope that the house arrest of the Green Movement leaders will be lifted by Nowruz, which is two weeks away. Meanwhile, Ali Younesi, an advisor to Hassan Rouhani on ethnic and religious minority affairs, stated on Tuesday that he is not aware of Mr. Motahari's comments but 'we know that the restrictions are coming to an end.' He emphasized in an interview with ILNA news agency: 'If this process continues wisely, perhaps by next year such problems will no longer trouble the country and politicians, and I fundamentally believe that lifting the house arrest will not create problems for the country.' Previously, officials in Hassan Rouhani's government had repeatedly promised to pursue the lifting of house arrest, which was also one of Rouhani's electoral slogans, but so far has remained unresolved. In this context, the families of Mr. Mousavi and Karroubi, along with several political activists, have criticized the Rouhani government for not taking practical steps to lift the house arrest. However, in recent months, changes have occurred in the status of house arrest, and in addition to several political activists being able to have individual meetings with Mr. Karroubi, the restrictions on the scheduling of meetings between Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard with their daughters and families have been lifted. Additionally, after the death of Ehtiram al-Sadat Nobaveh Safavi, Zahra Rahnavard's mother, on the first of Esfand, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard were allowed to briefly attend her body in the presence of officials, although they were not allowed to participate in the mourning ceremony. 'Not all suicides in prison are due to hardship' Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei claimed on Tuesday that not all suicides in prison 'are due to hardship in prison' and 'often organizational individuals and those with serious crimes commit suicide to prevent their information from being discovered.' He also stated regarding the death of Kavous Seyed Emami during detention that he had 'no hardship' in prison and 'no pressure regarding food, health, and medicine.' The spokesperson of the Iranian judiciary also reminded that the reason for the suicide of this university professor and environmental activist 'is not clear'; a statement contradicting the words of the Tehran prosecutor who said Mr. Seyed Emami committed suicide due to confessions made about him. While the Tehran prosecutor and the judiciary spokesperson have accused Kavous Seyed Emami and the detained environmental activists of 'espionage,' the Ministry of Intelligence has not yet independently commented on this case. Previously, Mohammad Reza Tabesh, head of the Environmental Protection faction in Parliament, and some university associations have rejected the judiciary officials' statements regarding Mr. Seyed Emami's 'espionage,' with Mr. Tabesh stating that 'the detainees were not political and did not have access to classified information.' Since the Islamic Revolution of February 1979, judicial officials have sometimes declared the cause of death of some prisoners as suicide, but their families have questioned this claim, stating that there are ambiguities regarding the circumstances of their deaths. The deaths of Ayatollah Hassan Lahouti and his son Vahid Lahouti are among the most famous ambiguous deaths of political figures critical of the government in the early years after the revolution. The death of Zahra Bani Yaghoubi, a medical student who was arrested by Basij forces in 2007 while talking to her fiancé in a park in Hamadan, is also one of the ambiguous deaths that judicial officials have declared as suicide. Judicial officials also declared the reason for the suicide of Ibrahim Lotfollahi, a 27-year-old Kurdish student in 2007, as suicide, but the family of this student rejected this claim. Another ambiguous death of a prisoner is that of Omidreza Mirsiafi, a detained blogger, who died on March 18, 2009, in Evin prison at the age of 28. Human rights organizations have repeatedly called for investigations into suspicious deaths in Iranian prisons, and several parliament members have emphasized the need to form an independent investigative committee following reports of suspicious deaths of several detainees during the nationwide protests in January.