Motahari: There is Little Hope for Lifting House Arrest Before Nowruz

The Deputy Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly stated that "senior security and intelligence officials" had promised that the house arrest of the leaders of the Green Movement would be lifted by the end of the year, but they have not fulfilled this promise, and he does not expect the house arrest to be lifted by that time. On Friday, March 16, Ali Motahari told ILNA news agency that "senior security and intelligence officials" had promised that the house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi Karroubi would be lifted by the end of the year. He announced, however, that he has "little hope" for the lifting of the house arrest at this time, and that failure to lift it would mean a "breach of promise" on their part. Mr. Motahari did not name the officials who had promised to lift the house arrest of the Green Movement leaders by the end of the year. The Deputy Speaker also stated that if the house arrest is not lifted during the Nowruz holidays, "we will continue our follow-ups." Mr. Motahari and several other members of parliament had expressed hope in recent months that the house arrest of the Green Movement leaders would be lifted by Nowruz. Meanwhile, Ali Younesi, an advisor to Hassan Rouhani on ethnic and religious minority affairs, said on March 5 that he was unaware of Mr. Motahari's statements but added, "We know that the restrictions are coming to an end." On the same day, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, reiterated that the Supreme National Security Council had made "no changes" to its resolution regarding the house arrest of the leaders of the 2009 protests, but if the council's resolution changes, they will be tried. 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. Mehdi Karroubi, along with Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard, has been under house arrest since February 2011 as leaders of the protests against the 2009 election results, and requests for an end to their house arrest or trial have not yielded results. Previously, officials in Hassan Rouhani's government had repeatedly promised to pursue the lifting of the house arrest, but this issue, which was also part of Hassan Rouhani's electoral slogans, has remained unresolved. In this context, the families of Mr. Mousavi and Karroubi and 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 the house arrest, and besides a few political activists being able to have individual visits with Mr. Karroubi, the restrictions on the timing of visits between Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard with their daughters have also been lifted. Heather Nauert, spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, on February 15, at the end of the seventh anniversary of the house arrest of Rahnavard, Mousavi, and Karroubi, issued a statement calling for their release and the release of all political prisoners who are "unjustly" imprisoned. While some conservative figures have stated that the condition for lifting the house arrest is an "apology" from the Green Movement leaders, Mehdi Karroubi, in an open letter to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic published on January 30, held him responsible for the current political, economic, cultural, and social situation in Iran and called for "creating the grounds for structural reform of the system." In this regard, Zahra Rahnavard's mother passed away; Mousavi and Rahnavard were temporarily released from house arrest for a few hours.