Member of the National Trust Party Meets with Mehdi Karroubi for the Second Time in Recent Weeks

The son of Mehdi Karroubi has reported that Ismail Doosti, a member of the National Trust Party, met with his father on November 8, marking the second such meeting in recent months at the location of his house arrest, with no one else being allowed to visit. Mohammad Taghi Karroubi wrote on his Instagram that on November 8, while 'security officials' were present at the house arrest location, Ismail Doosti was allowed to meet with Mr. Karroubi, and after the officials left, he spoke with Mr. Karroubi for several hours. The son of Mehdi Karroubi did not mention the names or positions of the security officials present during the visit. He also noted that Doosti had previously met with Mr. Karroubi at the house arrest location at the end of October. Hussein Karroubi, another son of Mehdi Karroubi, announced on October 19 that the Supreme National Security Council had 'approved' certain individuals to meet with his father, which led to Doosti's visit. He added that Ali Shamkhani had told some members of the 'Committee for Following Up on House Arrest' in the Hope Faction of Parliament that 'we want to bring some friends to see Mr. Karroubi and Mousavi.' Hussein Karroubi also mentioned that the Supreme National Security Council had 'approved that gradually a series of individuals could meet with Mr. Karroubi and Mr. Mousavi.' Mohammad Taghi Karroubi further stated on his Instagram that Ismail Doosti had met with Mr. Karroubi twice during the early months of the house arrest of the Green Movement leaders. According to this report, on March 15, 2011, after the house arrest of Mehdi Karroubi and his wife Fatemeh Karroubi, security officials brought Mohammad Reza Abbasi-Fard, a former member of the Guardian Council, along with Ismail Doosti to meet Mr. Karroubi. According to Mohammad Taghi Karroubi, six months after the house arrest of the Green Movement leaders, following Mehdi Karroubi's threat of hunger strike due to security agents preventing access to their apartment units, Doosti, who was 'worried about Mr. Karroubi's physical condition,' was brought to the house arrest location to dissuade him from his decision. He added that after Mehdi Karroubi's threat, security agents 'retreated,' but at the same time, Mr. Karroubi was held for 100 days in a one-bedroom apartment near 7 Tir Square 'without access to light and fresh air.' In another Instagram post, Mohammad Taghi Karroubi wrote: 'In days when a significant part of the principlists express their opposition to the continuation of the house arrest with the argument that its continuation is no longer in the interest of the regime, I doubt that Mr. Shamkhani, who had distanced himself from the suppressors during the events of 2009, would seek to obstruct the path of house arrest.' Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, stated on Tuesday, November 1, that the leaders of the protesters against the results of the 2009 presidential election 'are not under house arrest' and 'can meet anyone they wish.' Hours after these remarks, the children of Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Zahra Rahnavard announced that they are still under house arrest. Several social media users also protested Mr. Shamkhani's statements. The lifting of the house arrest was one of the main demands of Hassan Rouhani's supporters in the presidential elections of 2013 and 2017, and he made promises regarding the lifting of the house arrest in both elections, either explicitly or implicitly. However, during the four years of Rouhani's first government, no practical action was taken to fulfill this promise, and during his second term, restrictions against Mohammad Khatami, the former president of Iran, were also increased. Earlier, the daughters of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard wrote a letter to religious authorities on October 15, criticizing officials for 'shying away' from pursuing the issue of their parents' house arrest, stating that 'the gradual death of the detainees has become the wish and plan of some.' The recent meeting of the Supreme National Security Council regarding the house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard has generated news, and government and judicial officials have provided differing accounts of this meeting. Ultimately, Keyvan Khosravi, the spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council, announced that the issue of house arrest was not on the agenda of the recent council meeting, and only a report about 'the openings created in the situation of the detainees' was discussed, and 'no new decisions regarding the original issue of house arrest were made.' Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard have been under house arrest without trial since February 2011. Their requests for a public trial have not been accepted, and hardline military and clerical figures have threatened them with heavy sentences, including execution. Meanwhile, Ali Motahari, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, in a letter to the spokesman of the judiciary on August 21, once again called the continuation of the house arrest of the Green Movement leaders by the Supreme National Security Council 'unconstitutional' and raised the question of whether the opposition to their trial 'does not create the suspicion of fear of revealing the truths?'