Najjat: The Verdict for Mousavi and Karroubi Will Be Death or Life Imprisonment

The deputy of the IRGC's Intelligence Organization stated that if the house arrest of the leaders of the Green Movement is lifted, the judiciary has the "right" to put them on trial, and in that case, a sentence less than "death or life imprisonment" will not be issued. Hossein Najjat made these remarks in an interview on the program "Dasht-e Khat" aired on Fridays on Iran's Channel 5. In response to the host's question about the possibility of lifting the house arrest of one of the two individuals [Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi], he mentioned that this issue was also discussed in a recent National Security Council meeting. He added, "If the Supreme National Security Council decides to lift the house arrest, it is the right of the judiciary to put them on trial." This IRGC commander further stated: "In principle, if such crimes go to the judiciary and the individual is tried, I doubt that a sentence less than death or life imprisonment would be issued against these individuals." Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard have been under house arrest without trial since February 2011. Mr. Karroubi's repeated requests to attend a public trial have not been accepted, and military and hardline clerics have threatened them with heavy sentences, including death, from the judiciary in response. Najjat also mentioned that the "system's condition" during this time has been that they should "come and apologize." He criticized some political figures who protested the results of the 2009 presidential election for comparing the system to Egypt and Tunisia and for writing letters from prison to Egypt and Tunisia, stating that "your movement is like our Green Movement." Najjat is the only official of the Islamic Republic who has attributed the house arrest of these three not to the protests of the 2009 election but to their "call for gathering in solidarity with the people of Syria." The deputy head of the IRGC's Intelligence Organization also evaluated the police's actions against protesters during the peaceful protests of February 25, 2009, as the "duty" of the officers of that force. He recently stated that the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic has had no involvement in the house arrest of the Green Movement leaders. This comes while Ali Motahari, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, previously stated that the continuation of the house arrest of Mousavi, Karroubi, and Rahnavard was done with the "opinion" of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to Fars News Agency, Najjat also added that the house arrest was approved at the request of the head of the judiciary in the Supreme National Security Council, and none of the members of this council, including Hassan Rouhani, opposed it. Ezzatollah Zarghami, the former head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, also recently stated that in 2009, during a meeting of the Supreme National Security Council to decide on the house arrest of the Green Movement leaders, there was a consensus, and for this reason, no vote was taken.