Rumor of Mehdi Karroubi's Death Denied

Mohammad Taghi Karroubi, the son of Mehdi Karroubi, denied the rumor of his father's death. In an interview with Radio Farda, Mr. Karroubi stated that the rumor, which first appeared on a Telegram channel, is completely false. The public relations office of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences also officially denied the news of Mehdi Karroubi's death at Tajrish Hospital on Thursday. Ismail Ramadan, an official from the university, responded to the rumors circulating in the past 24 hours about Mr. Karroubi's death at Tajrish Hospital by telling the Iranian Labor News Agency, ILNA, that 'this matter is completely untrue and is fundamentally a lie.' The rumor of Mehdi Karroubi's death at Shahid Tajrish Hospital (formerly known as Reza Pahlavi Medical Center) has been widely circulated on social media in recent days. Mr. Karroubi has been under house arrest since winter 2010 after he and Mir Hossein Mousavi called on their supporters to protest on February 25 of that year. His house arrest, like that of Mir Hossein Mousavi, has occurred without a trial or judicial sentence. Mr. Karroubi and Mr. Mousavi were rival candidates to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 10th presidential election in Iran, which they did not accept the results of. Zahra Rahnavard, Mr. Mousavi's wife, is also under house arrest with him. Mehdi Karroubi is 79 years old. Recently, in a letter to Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, he stated that although he does not consider the lifting of his house arrest to be 'in his hands,' he urged Mr. Rouhani to ask the 'tyrannical regime' to put him on trial in a 'public court' to clarify who the 'dishonorable' is. Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, described the protesters against the 2009 presidential election results, particularly the leaders of the Green Movement, as 'dishonorable' in one of his recent speeches.