Kaleme Website: Security Forces Have Opened the Welded Windows of Akhtar House

The Kaleme website, close to Mir-Hossein Mousavi, reported on Tuesday, August 30, that 'security forces' have opened the welded windows of the house of Mr. Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard on Akhtar Street. According to the report, 'security forces' acted on Monday, August 29, to open the windows that had been welded and locked eight years ago. The report states that 'these windows were welded and locked at the beginning of the house arrest to turn the house into a prison, and the internal handles of the house had been removed.' The website added that 'after eight years, not all of the house is under the control of the detainees, and parts of it, including facilities, stairs, and the roof, remain locked and under the control of the jailers.' Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard, leaders of the protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election, have been under house arrest since February 2011. Kaleme noted that although 'repeated rumors' about lifting the house arrest have surfaced ahead of Eid al-Adha, the website's follow-up indicates that the house arrest situation continues. According to the report, the permission for Mousavi and Rahnavard to leave their home to visit their children is not a 'new occurrence' and that 'in the years before 2013, when Hassan Rouhani came to power in Iran, Mousavi and Rahnavard had also been taken by jailers to their daughters' homes, and after that, the house arrest continued with the same intensity.' The website emphasized that the permission to meet with their daughters at home, contrary to what 'some sources have implied, does not mean freedom of movement and liberty, and the requirements and arrangements for it are determined by the agents, and in any case, the exit of the detainees from the house must be under the supervision of the agents.' Ardshir Amir Arjamand, senior advisor to Mir-Hossein Mousavi, also told Radio Farda on Tuesday, August 30, that nothing special has recently happened and that the interpretation that 'nothing remains of the house arrest is very exaggerated and only has a news aspect and does not correspond to the realities of the house arrest.' He added without mentioning any specific individual: 'If individuals who have made promises that they cannot fulfill should not let the issue of house arrest be trivialized.' Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, has repeatedly promised to lift the house arrest during his electoral campaigns in 2013 and 2017. According to Amir Arjamand, 'the end of house arrest means that they can freely leave their home, meet with anyone they want, adopt their political positions, and have their social and professional lives. But such an event has not happened.' He considered the lifting of house arrest contingent on the 'decision' of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic and added that if Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, 'takes into account his factional and party interests, he must take immediate action to lift the house arrest, and if this happens, it means that the government has accepted to take the first steps to change the way of governance.' Previously, Ali Motahari, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, had said that the house arrest has been prolonged because of 'the opinion' of Mr. Khamenei on the continuation of the house arrest. Earlier, the Saham News website, close to Mehdi Karroubi, reported on August 2 that Hassan Rouhani had requested the lifting of the house arrest of the leaders of the Green Movement, but the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic again opposed this. According to Saham News, following the renewed proposal to lift the house arrest by Hassan Rouhani after the Supreme National Security Council's resolution regarding consulting the Supreme Leader on this matter, he told the President: 'Currently, there are many more important issues in the country than lifting the house arrest that the government and the Supreme National Security Council should pursue.'