Widespread Security Forces Presence to Counter Protest Against Continued House Arrest of Green Movement Leaders

Following the arrest of three organizers of a gathering in support of Green Movement leaders, reports from Tehran indicate a "widespread" presence of security forces ahead of this gathering, as well as the detention of several participants. Three of the invitees to a "peaceful gathering" that was supposed to take place in front of Tehran University to protest the continued house arrest of the leaders of the 2009 protests were arrested on Wednesday, February 13. Simultaneously, on the morning of Thursday, February 14, several eyewitnesses in Tehran reported on social media about a significant gathering of police forces on "Enghelab Street between Palestine and 16 Azar". One of these witnesses reported a gathering of "at least a hundred police vans and cars" on Enghelab Street in Tehran. This eyewitness wrote that "many people were walking on the southern sidewalk, and there were so many officers that it was hard to tell who was a civilian and who was an officer." An hour later, news emerged that several other critics of the Islamic Republic were also arrested in connection with this protest. Among those detained were Saeed Montazeri (the son of Ayatollah Montazeri), his sister Saideh Montazeri, Mahmoud Dardakshan, Javad Dardakshan, and Abdolrahim Soleimani, who were either arrested or placed under house arrest. Subsequently, it was reported that Mohammad Baqir Bakhtiar, founder and commander of the 114th Amir al-Mu'minin Brigade in Ilam and a naval commander during the war, was also arrested during the protest on Thursday. This gathering was announced to take place on Thursday, February 14, coinciding with the fifteenth anniversary of the house arrest of the "leaders of the Green Movement"; however, the day before, Rahim Qamishi, Nasser Daneshfar, and Akbar Sararoudi, who were pursuing the organization of this gathering, were arrested. On Thursday, before the scheduled time of the gathering, social media reports indicated a gathering of supporters of the Green Movement leaders and the arrest of several of them. In this context, Saham News reported on the "widespread arrests" of individuals present at the gathering and the detention of "two of the children" of Ayatollah Montazeri. Saham News described the participants of this gathering as "a group of veterans and families of martyrs protesting the continued house arrest of the Green Movement leaders." Concurrently, the Jamearan news website published a statement from the Martyrs' Assembly Party on Thursday following the news of the arrests in front of Tehran University, questioning: "What crime have they been arrested for? Is holding a gathering and assembly not the legal right of the people and political forces? Did they not officially notify the legal institutions of the country for holding this gathering?" Earlier, Ardshir Amir Arjamand, senior advisor to Mir Hossein Mousavi, confirmed the news of the arrest of three individuals on Wednesday, stating that they were "all veterans and were arrested despite going through all legal processes." On Wednesday, shortly after the news of the arrests of Rahim Qamishi and Akbar Sararoudi, Nasser Daneshfar published a video stating that "I will probably be arrested in a few hours, but the march will continue." In a call and statement from more than 500 individuals who introduced themselves as "concerned citizens" and families of the casualties and injured from the Iran-Iraq war, it was stated that the house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi Karroubi must end, and the signatories will gather in a "legal and peaceful" manner to achieve this request. On Wednesday, a picture of a letter from Rahim Qamishi and Nasser Daneshfar to the Minister of Interior was also published, in which they announced that "representing the signatories of the campaign to lift the house arrest," they intended to gather peacefully on February 14 in front of Tehran University, citing Article 27 of the Constitution. Zahra Rahnavard, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Mehdi Karroubi, leaders of the protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election, have been under house arrest since February 14, 2010. From the statements of several officials of the Islamic Republic, including the former police chief, it has been inferred that the house arrest of these three individuals was implemented by the order of Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic. Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, two candidates of the controversial 2009 presidential election, claimed that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory in that election was the result of "vote counting fraud" and "interference by military institutions." Despite years of house arrest, they have not retracted these accusations or expressed regret. In response to their request to hold a march on February 14, 2010, tens of thousands of people protested in Tehran and other cities in Iran, which was met with severe repression by security forces and widespread arrests. The call for a gathering in support of the Green Movement leaders coincided with the emergence of a new account of the arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard, in which Mrs. Rahnavard described the manner of her and her husband's arrest and the nighttime raid by security forces on their home on February 24, 2010.