Visit of the President's Brother to Mehdi Karroubi After Surgery

According to the National Trust Party website, Mehdi Karroubi, a leader of Iran's Green Movement, underwent surgery on Tuesday morning, December 8, due to a broken leg. Following the surgery, Hossein Fereydoun, the brother of Iran's President, visited him and conveyed Hassan Rouhani's greetings. The report states that 'the left knee joint and the double shin of Mr. Karroubi' were broken last week due to a 'fault' in the elevator at his place of house arrest, which caused him to fall. In this regard, Hossein Karroubi, Mehdi Karroubi's son, said: 'The surgery on Mr. Karroubi's leg was successfully performed this morning, and Hossein Fereydoun, the brother and assistant of Hassan Rouhani, visited the hospital to convey the President's greetings and wish him health and recovery.' He added: 'Yesterday, the Minister of Health also visited the hospital to be informed about his medical case.' According to the report, this is Mehdi Karroubi's sixth surgery since the beginning of his house arrest, with previous surgeries including those for a herniated disc, knee, urinary tract, eye, and heart. Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi Karroubi, leaders of the protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election, have been under house arrest without trial since February 2011. After three years of 'imprisonment' in a 'safe house' of the Ministry of Intelligence, Mehdi Karroubi was moved to his home in Jamaran in February 2014, but he remains under house arrest. The families of these three individuals have repeatedly expressed concern about their physical condition over the years. For instance, Fatemeh Karroubi, Mehdi Karroubi's wife, criticized the Ministry of Intelligence's actions regarding the conditions of house arrest for the two candidates of the 2009 election in a letter to the Minister of Intelligence in May. Among those who have repeatedly protested the house arrest of these three individuals is Ali Motahari, a representative from Tehran in the Parliament. On Tuesday, December 7, he stated at Shahid Beheshti University: 'Continuing the house arrest is not in the interest of the system and may turn into a cancerous tumor in the future.' According to ISNA news agency, he added: 'It is not right for us to say without trial that they were seeking to overthrow the government and their punishment is execution, and we have shown Islamic clemency by putting them under house arrest. If a punishment is to be carried out, it must follow the legal process.' Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, promised during his election campaign that he would create conditions through negotiations with other institutions to free political prisoners and the leaders of the Green Movement. Meanwhile, Khashayar Pourtaheri, the secretary of the Islamic Association of Sharif University, protested the continued house arrest of the Green Movement leaders and the media ban on Mohammad Khatami, the former President of Iran, before Mr. Rouhani's speech at the university on Tuesday. Recently, Mr. Rouhani stated in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi will be 'freed one day.'