Khatami's Request to Khamenei for Lifting the House Arrest of Mousavi, Karroubi, and Rahnavard

Mohammad Khatami, the former president of Iran, on Sunday, August 20, urged the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic to issue an order for the "lifting of the house arrest" of the leaders of the protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election. "Khatami Media," Khatami's official information channel on social networks, reported this, quoting him: "On behalf of the free people, I request the Supreme Leader to issue an order to resolve the issue of lifting the house arrest." Khatami considered this matter to be "in the interest of the system and a sign of its security and power." According to the Khabar Online website, he emphasized that "the president must fulfill the promises made during the elections and considered the demand for lifting the house arrest as one of the serious demands of the people that must be acted upon." Khatami praised the promise to end the presence of security agents at the house arrest of Mehdi Karroubi, adding: "We always said that this is within the government's control and perhaps this order should have been given sooner, and thankfully they promised that the work would be done." He added: "The president should take this demand more seriously according to the promises made to the people and the requests heard from them, and in coordination with the leadership and respecting the leader's concerns, strive to resolve the issue of house arrest and make the transition from a security atmosphere to an open and healthy political environment easier." Khabar Online noted that Khatami made this request following the demands of the free and self-sacrificing people for the lifting of the house arrest of Mr. Karroubi, Mr. Mousavi, and Ms. Zahra Rahnavard. The former president of Iran also stated that the responsible agencies do not want or cannot solve the issue of house arrest and that it is the attention of Khamenei that will resolve this issue. Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, along with Zahra Rahnavard, have been under house arrest since February 2011, and requests for their release have not yielded results so far. Lifting the house arrest was one of the main demands of Hassan Rouhani's supporters in the two presidential elections of 2013 and 2017, and in both elections, Mr. Rouhani made explicit or implicit promises regarding lifting the house arrest. Although during the four years of Rouhani's first government, not only was there no public action to fulfill this promise, but restrictions on figures such as Mahmoud Khatami were also increased. Judicial officials, who claim that the house arrest of the protest leaders was decided by the Supreme National Security Council, have repeatedly stated that if the house arrest is lifted, the prosecution of the leaders of the protests against the 2009 election results will be on the agenda. Meanwhile, Mehdi Karroubi has repeatedly called for a public trial regarding himself, and figures such as Ali Motahari have emphasized that the decision-making authority regarding lifting the house arrest rests with the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, and they have stressed that if these three protest leaders are tried, another figure involved in the events of 2009, namely Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the then president, should also be tried.