Latest Statements by Mohseni Eje'i Regarding the Trial of Mousavi and Karroubi

According to the Iranian Labor News Agency, ILNA, the spokesperson of the Iranian judiciary on Monday, January 15, stated in a press conference regarding the trial of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi: "As soon as the conditions for the trial are met, the trial will take place." Fars News Agency reported that Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje'i also mentioned: "If one day the necessary conditions are provided, the trial of the leaders of the sedition will take place, and the people will be informed." ISNA also quoted a similar statement from this press conference. Meanwhile, the judiciary-affiliated news agency, Mizan, reported from the same press conference that "a court will soon be established to try the leaders of the 2009 sedition, and they will be tried, and the results of the court sessions will be communicated to the public." This part of Mr. Eje'i's remarks, as reflected in Mizan, was not reported by ISNA, Fars, and Mehr news agencies. These agencies wrote that the spokesperson of the judiciary, in response to a journalist's question about whether an indictment would be issued to clarify public opinion on this matter, said: "The people are aware of this issue and the events following the 2009 sedition, and until the indictment is prepared, according to the law, no comments can be made about the defendants in this case, and as long as a judicial case is not formed, no indictment will be issued, and even if it is issued, according to the law, it cannot be communicated." Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi Karroubi have been under house arrest without trial since February 2011 based on a resolution by the Supreme National Security Council. In response to a letter from Ali Motahari regarding the house arrest, Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje'i stated about the open letter to Sadegh Amoli Larijani, the head of the Iranian judiciary, that "some of the contents of this letter are pure lies and subject to prosecution, and a response will be given in the near future." Ali Motahari, a representative from Tehran in the parliament, had referred to the judiciary head's remarks about the legality of the house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi as "playing with the constitution and the judiciary." The head of the judiciary had stated on Wednesday, January 10, that the house arrest of these two individuals is "legal" and in accordance with the defined duties in Article 176 of the constitution for the Supreme National Security Council. In his open letter, Ali Motahari wrote, "Unfortunately, this argument is weak and has implications that undermine the democratic foundation of the Islamic Republic and render the constitution ineffective." He added, "The signature of this resolution by the then head of the Supreme National Security Council, Mr. Ahmadinejad, who, according to your own statements, wrote letters twice for the freedom of the detainees, is questionable." Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje'i responded that Mr. Motahari was not present at the Supreme National Security Council meeting and that "some of the contents in this letter are presented as conjecture, which is not befitting a member of parliament."