Motahari's Request to the Assembly of Experts to Review the House Arrest of Green Movement Leaders

Ali Motahari, in a letter to Mohammad Yazdi, the head of the Assembly of Experts, has requested that the house arrest of Green Movement leaders and the media ban on Mohammad Khatami, former President of Iran, be placed on the agenda of the upcoming Assembly meeting. This Tehran representative expressed hope that after these issues are included in the Assembly's agenda, 'with the wisdom and guidance of the esteemed leader of the Islamic Revolution, these two problems will be resolved.' In his letter, Motahari stated: 'Considering that responsible authorities do not provide legal documentation or accountability regarding the media ban on the former president and the house arrest of the wartime prime minister and his wife, as well as the former speaker of parliament, I kindly request that these two issues be placed on the agenda of the upcoming Assembly meeting so that, with the wisdom and guidance of the esteemed leader of the Islamic Revolution, these two problems can be resolved.' Morteza Kazemian, a national-religious political analyst in France, told Radio Farda that 'Ali Motahari, as a principled and true reformist, is aware of the special role of the Supreme Leader in the continued illegal imprisonment of Green Movement leaders and the media ban on Mr. Khatami.' According to Kazemian, Motahari has 'intelligently thrown the ball of pursuing these two areas into the courts of both the leadership and the Assembly of Experts.' This Iranian affairs analyst believes that 'the position of the hardline and authoritarian head of the Assembly of Experts regarding both questioned issues is clear' and 'the Assembly of Experts will not respond to Motahari and will not have the courage to address these two matters or question the leader of the system. However, with six months until the Assembly elections, the performative and nominal nature of the existing Assembly and the importance of changing its composition will become increasingly clear to citizens.' The fifth round of the Assembly of Experts elections is scheduled to be held on March 7, coinciding with the tenth round of the Islamic Consultative Assembly elections. According to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, one of the duties of the Assembly of Experts is to oversee the performance of the leader, and this Assembly is the only body that can appoint and dismiss the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, two candidates who protested the results of the 2009 presidential election in Iran and led the subsequent protest movement (the Green Movement), have been under house arrest since March 2010. Zahra Rahnavard, Mousavi's wife, also accompanies him in this house arrest. The judiciary of the Islamic Republic has also declared Mohammad Khatami, the former president of Iran, to be under a media ban. Motahari has been a serious opponent of these issues in recent years and has publicly protested them multiple times. According to an interpretation provided by the Guardian Council of the Islamic Republic's Constitution, candidates for the Assembly of Experts elections, like their counterparts in the Islamic Consultative Assembly elections, must be vetted by this council. Meanwhile, members of the Guardian Council are directly or indirectly appointed by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic.