The Issue of House Arrest Cleared

The newspaper Bahar published a plan on its front page related to the statements made by the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council on Tuesday regarding the house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard, with the headline "The Issue of House Arrest Cleared." Ali Shamkhani, after five years, has taken a position on this matter, stating: "No one is under house arrest." The newspaper writes: "The issue of the house arrest of the three detainees has entered a new phase with the recent statements of the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council denying the matter completely. However, there are two views regarding Ali Shamkhani's statements: one considers it a whitewashing of the issue of house arrest, while the other sees it as a potential entry into a space of reducing the restrictions of house arrest." According to Bahar, Massoud Pezeshkian, the Deputy Speaker of the Tenth Parliament, reacted to Ali Shamkhani's statements by saying: "If the detainees are not under house arrest, then what should we call their situation?" This member of the Committee for Lifting House Arrest believes that further statements on this matter depend on clear answers from the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council to such questions and expressed hope that the issue of house arrest would be resolved soon. The newspaper Hamdeli also highlighted that "house arrest remains a recurring topic in media discourse" and "some officials have become sensitive to the use of this term," noting that on Tuesday, Ali Shamkhani told reporters: "The term house arrest is not a correct term" and "there is no house arrest." According to this newspaper, in response to a journalist who asked him about "the timing of lifting the house arrest of Mousavi and Karroubi and Rahnavard," Shamkhani stated: "When the reason for its occurrence is resolved; this incident happened after the 2009 elections." Ali Shamkhani stated that "the term house arrest is not a correct term and these gentlemen you refer to are not under house arrest," adding: "They can see anyone they want. As recently, Mr. Karroubi requested to meet with a friend, and this was done." The same newspaper reported that Hassan Norouzi, the spokesman for the Tenth Parliament's Legal and Judicial Commission, stated that "Ali Motahari was not satisfied with the Justice Minister's answers regarding the reasons for the house arrest of Mousavi and Karroubi, and for this reason, the question has been referred to the public session." The spokesman said: "The Justice Minister attended the Legal and Judicial Commission meeting on Tuesday to answer representatives' questions," and Ali Motahari's question "concerned the reasons for the house arrest of Mousavi and Karroubi, who have been under detention and house arrest since 2009, and no court has been held for them yet. After Alireza Avaei's explanations on this matter, Mr. Motahari was not satisfied with the answers, and it was decided that the question would be referred to the public session for consideration." The newspaper Jameh Farda focused on the reactions to Ali Shamkhani's statements, writing: "In the past seven years, there have been numerous comments regarding the status of Zahra Rahnavard, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Mehdi Karroubi from various officials and political figures. However, this time the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council made statements about the house arrest of these three, which surprised some and was met with reactions." This newspaper noted that Ali Shamkhani's statements prompted the families of the detainees to respond immediately, quoting Hossein Karroubi, Mehdi Karroubi's son, who said: "Mr. Shamkhani has denied the house arrest in these statements. His words are also based on the meeting of a member of the Central Council of the National Trust Party with Mr. Karroubi. Instead of saying what he has done in the past five years to lift the house arrest, he is whitewashing the issue." Hossein Karroubi emphasized that "it would be better if he (Ali Shamkhani) explained what positive actions the Supreme National Security Council has taken in the past five years to lift the house arrest," stating: "Regarding the meeting of Mr. Doosti with Mr. Karroubi, the security forces selected the person who would go to meet him, and the same applies to other individuals, and Mr. Karroubi did not say who should go to visit him." However, "to say after seven years that there is no house arrest is not appropriate, ethical, or good, especially since the spokesman for the judiciary has also spoken about the house arrest multiple times." According to Jameh Farda, the daughters of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard also reacted to this issue on their Twitter accounts, with Narges Mousavi writing: "Zahra Rahnavard and Mir Hossein Mousavi are still under house arrest and are deprived of seeing their relatives and friends as before," and "Zahra Mousavi also criticized Ali Shamkhani's statements in a tweet, emphasizing that the conditions that have continued for seven years are even worse than house arrest." The newspaper noted: "Since the legal origin of the house arrest is in the Supreme National Security Council, in the past five years, Hassan Rouhani has repeatedly faced the question of what actions he has taken as the head of this council to resolve this issue, a question that the president has always avoided answering." Jameh Farda also reminded that contrary to Ali Shamkhani, who said on Tuesday that Mousavi, Karroubi, and Rahnavard "are not under house arrest," the spokesman for the judiciary explicitly stated on September 4 that "the Supreme National Security Council's resolution regarding house arrest is legal and binding, and no one has the right to oppose it. No new decisions will be made, and house arrest remains in effect." The newspaper Javan titled the statements of Mohammad Ali Jafari on Tuesday as "Warning from the Commander of the IRGC to America" and quoted the IRGC commander as saying: "They can be sure that the implementation of the CATSA law and increasing economic pressures on Iran will strengthen Iran's resolve to enhance its defense capabilities and will increase the volume, range, and accuracy of Iran's missiles." According to this newspaper, based on Clause 105 of the CATSA law, which was implemented on Tuesday, the U.S. President is obliged to sanction foreign individuals identified as officials, agents, or affiliates of the IRGC. Javan quoted Mohammad Ali Jafari as saying: "By implementing the CATSA law under the pretext of sanctioning the IRGC and Iran's defense and missile capabilities, the U.S. is actually targeting Iran's economy." Kayhan also quoted the IRGC commander stating: "The Americans are sufficiently within the range of the IRGC's missiles." Mohammad Ali Jafari emphasized that "the range of our missiles, according to the policies set by the leadership, is limited to two thousand kilometers, and although there is the capability to increase this range, this amount is sufficient since the Americans are sufficiently present within a two thousand kilometer radius around our country, and if they attack, they will be responded to." According to this newspaper, Mohammad Ali Jafari stated: "The Americans are afraid of the consequences of war with Iran and know that if such a war starts, they will be the losers; therefore, they are trying to strike at the Islamic Republic through soft warfare and economic pressure." The newspaper Iran, close to the government, reported on its front page about "Rouhani's order to resolve the issue of Sepanta Niknam" and wrote that Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, in a press conference held at the 23rd Press Exhibition, responded to a question regarding what actions the government has taken regarding the citizenship rights of Sepanta Niknam in the Yazd City Council, stating: "The President emphasized in the cabinet meeting that this issue should be resolved." The government spokesman said: "Our existing laws allow Zoroastrian citizens to enjoy citizenship rights; as evidenced by the presence of Zoroastrian representatives in the parliament. Therefore, we are pursuing a series of effective measures to resolve this issue and prevent other issues from arising." Meanwhile, Hadi Sadeghi, the cultural deputy of the judiciary, also told the newspaper Iran that "the Guardian Council's opinion regarding the Zoroastrian member of the Yazd City Council was not in the interest of the community." This senior judiciary official stated that in the case of the suspension of Sepanta Niknam, a Zoroastrian member of the Yazd City Council, "there is no criticism of the Guardian Council in terms of intervention. I am discussing the formal aspect of the issue, which is not problematic, but in terms of content, I believe a different opinion could have been given. As someone who is also knowledgeable about religious issues, my opinion may differ from the opinions of the Guardian Council's jurists. Although the Guardian Council had the right to intervene, I believe their opinion was not in the interest of the community and was not correct. Because the presence of one person among a larger group in the Yazd City Council is not a 'mustache' that this one person becomes the mustache of the infidels over the Muslims. Nevertheless, although the Guardian Council had the right to intervene in this matter, I wish they had not." Hadi Sadeghi told the newspaper Iran that the head of the judiciary is also opposed to the suspension of Sepanta Niknam and emphasized that Sadegh Larijani also "said that in terms of formal intervention, the Guardian Council's intervention is correct, but in terms of content, he is also opposed. Our opinion is in agreement with Mr. Amoli Larijani," and "he explicitly stated that it is not in the interest of the community. He said that the Guardian Council could have considered the interest in their jurisprudential view." Meanwhile, Mohammad Yazdi, a member of the Guardian Council's jurists, severely criticized Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Tenth Parliament, for not accepting the council's opinion regarding the prohibition of Sepanta Niknam and other religious minorities in predominantly Muslim cities, stating: "I attribute part of the blame to Mr. Larijani. I am surprised that someone who is familiar with the general atmosphere of religious sciences and is a cleric would yield and express an inaccurate opinion. Being the Speaker of the Parliament is not enough for them to say whatever comes to mind. It would have been better if they had consulted with legal experts and jurists before raising this issue and informed themselves of the legal and religious reasons for this action." Mohammad Yazdi reiterated his defense of the Guardian Council's action in deeming "the amendment to Clause 24 of the City Council Elections Law" contrary to Islamic law, even after 21 years, stating: "The Guardian Council has carried out a legal and religious act that the Constitution has entrusted to it. Interestingly, there have been similar cases 135 times before, and this is not the first time that the Guardian Council's jurists have stated that part of a law is contrary to Islamic law, and it may not be the last time. Therefore, they issued an official statement and published it in the official newspaper. The basis for this action is also based on the words of Imam Khomeini, which he explicitly stated in his speech. We mentioned these references in that statement." Sobhe No quoted Mohammad Yazdi as saying that "the amendment to Clause 24 of the City Council Elections Law had previously been approved and was not paid attention to, but whenever this issue is discovered or questioned, the Guardian Council must express its opinion on it." The newspaper Aftab Yazd dedicated its front page photo and headline to the problems of tea farmers in northern Iran, stating: "Due to the non-payment of tea farmers' claims, the situation has become such that some tea farmers do not have a suitable livelihood and even buy their bread on credit. However, these tea farmers, when they take out loans from the bank for pruning their tea gardens and fall behind on their installments for a few days, the bank rushes to collect." The newspaper Aftab Yazd noted that "the tale of delays in paying tea farmers' claims is a recurring issue every year, but despite the legitimate complaints of tea farmers and the repeated promises of officials, this unpleasant tale continues." Quoting a tea farmer from Pilan, it stated: "We harvest tea in four rounds. The first round is in early spring, the second in late June, the third in August, and the fourth from September 15 to October 15. So far, we have only received the full payment for the first round, and we have just recently received half of the payment for the second round. In fact, tea farmers have not received any payment for the third and fourth rounds and have only received half of the payment for the second round." Tea farmers told Aftab Yazd that "previously, the payments to tea farmers were made periodically and somewhat regularly, meaning, for example, payments were made from the first to the fifteenth of the month or from the fifteenth to the end of the month. But now the situation is such that, for example, if a farmer delivers their tea on the 26th of the month, they receive their payment, but if they deliver on the 29th, they do not receive it. In fact, with this situation, there is no order in the payments, and this issue has exhausted the tea farmers." Mohammad Vali Roozbehani, the head of the Tea Organization of Iran, also mentioned that there are 151 tea processing and production factories in northern Iran, telling the newspaper: "The economic value of this product for our country is 550 million dollars." According to the head of the Tea Organization, "the per capita consumption of tea" in Iran is 110,000 tons," and this year more than 24,000 tons of green tea leaves were produced in the country," and thus "considering official imports, it can be said that 40,000 tons of tea are smuggled into the country, which must be addressed to prevent this extensive smuggling.