The Role of the Leader, Parliament, and People in Lifting the House Arrest of Green Movement Leaders

The Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council currently cannot report on the issue of the house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard. This is the latest statement from Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of this council, without further explanation in response to a question from an ILNA news agency reporter on Friday, July 2. Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard, three prominent figures of the 2009 protests, have been under house arrest since February 2011 without a trial, and no efforts to lift their house arrest have been successful. Ardshir Amir Arjamand, an advisor to Mir Hossein Mousavi in Paris, reacted to Shamkhani's latest statement regarding the house arrest of these three individuals, saying: "If a legal and defensible action had been taken, Mr. Shamkhani would certainly have been able to inform the public. Therefore, what has happened is not justifiable, and the relevant authorities are unable to accept responsibility for this action." He added: "Mr. Khamenei, as the leader of the Islamic Republic, who bears the primary responsibility for this action, is in a self-made deadlock from which he has no desire to escape." Mehdi Karroubi also wrote in an open letter to Hassan Rouhani in April that since lifting the house arrest is not "in the hands" of the president, it is appropriate for Mr. Rouhani to ask the "oppressive regime" to publicly try him. Nearly six years after the house arrest of Mr. Mousavi, Mr. Karroubi, and Ms. Rahnavard, no institution in the Islamic Republic is willing to accept responsibility for their house arrest. Ahmad Montazeri in Qom, who is familiar with the details of his father Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri's five-year house arrest (a deceased Shia religious authority), says: "They are not even willing to say who is directly responsible for this action. The officials of the Islamic Republic say contradictory words about this matter." He adds: "It is very regrettable, and it is beneficial for them to return from wherever they are. That is, they should say right now that a certain person decided to confine these three individuals. If they tell the truth, it is more acceptable than lying, which would then require a thousand other lies to justify the first lie." Ahmad Montazeri reminds that "various statements have been made about who is responsible for the house arrest. At one point, they said these three had been tried. Then they said they had not been tried. This has become a very ugly issue for the reputation of the Islamic Republic, and I hope they will compensate for it soon." On the other hand, Hassan Shariatmadari in Hamburg, who experienced the house arrest of his father Ayatollah Kazem Shariatmadari, a Shia religious authority, until the end of his life during the first decade of the revolution, says that only the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran can solve the issue of house arrest. According to him, "the fact that Mr. Shamkhani is washing his hands of this matter is a clear indication that this issue cannot be resolved unless Mr. Khamenei personally intervenes." However, Ardshir Amir Arjamand believes that the efforts of parliament representatives will not be ineffective. He says: "In such circumstances, the role of parliament becomes significant. The new parliament with new representatives has come; especially reformist representatives who have come to parliament with the promise to resolve the issue of house arrest." According to Mr. Amir Arjamand, "It is the duty of representatives to follow this issue to create conditions so that the Supreme National Security Council can also state the reality of the matter and clarify this ambiguous issue in the recent political history of Iran once and for all." Last summer, Ali Motahari, a critic of house arrest in parliament, who is now the second deputy of the tenth parliament, stated that the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in a meeting, opposed the trial of Mr. Mousavi, Mr. Karroubi, and Ms. Rahnavard, telling him that their "crime" is "very great." This statement echoes Hassan Shariatmadari's opinion. In his view, "This matter revolves around the expression of regret by Mousavi and Karroubi and satisfying Mr. Khamenei's sense of revenge; it is unlikely that Mr. Mousavi and Mr. Karroubi would agree to such a thing." The son of Ayatollah Shariatmadari concludes that "unfortunately, there is no solution except for Mr. Khamenei to realize at the end of his life that he should stop being obstinate and that there have been influential personalities in this Islamic Republic (without me wanting to evaluate because I have not agreed with most of their methods; but in any case) from the perspective of someone who has acted within this system, unless Mr. Khamenei realizes that he should free them." However, Ahmad Montazeri says that the solution to the problem is the activation of citizens protesting against the house arrest. He believes that "the activation of the people, both on social networks and in gatherings that are held, can be effective. The issue should not be forgotten and should always be stated that three high-ranking officials have been condemned without the right to defense and are now being punished for a crime they did not commit for two thousand days." The son of Ayatollah Montazeri concludes that "the people can accelerate the lifting of this [house arrest] by their presence and expressing their opinions wherever they can and repeating it." It remains to be seen how much Ahmad Montazeri's suggestion to citizens will be welcomed given the sensitivity of the institutions under the leader regarding the request to lift the house arrest.