Free Republic

(CNN) -- Iranian opposition leaders Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi and their wives were placed in a safe house for their own welfare, but they have not been arrested, Iranian government sources told CNN Saturday. "The opposition movement is very much looking for martyrs so if this is true it's for their own safety," one source told CNN. The pro-reform opposition movement "is always looking for an excuse to create something, so this may be done to keep someone from doing something to them," the source added. But the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran expressed concern for...

The children of Iranian opposition leaders have issued separate letters expressing grave concerns regarding the well-being of their parents. The daughters of Zahra Rahnavard and MirHosein Mousavi have not seen their parents in two weeks, and their last contact with them was February 14. In the letter published on Iranian opposition websites, they write that they have attempted to visit their parents several times, but the security forces have aggressively turned them away and prevented them from entering their home. They say they have often remained in the vicinity until late into the evening and noticed that after dark no...

Iranian security forces have arrested a son of opposition leader Mehdi Karoubi, his website reported on Tuesday, one week after his supporters took to the streets in their first demonstrations in more than a year. "Last night security forces entered the house of Ali Karoubi and arrested him and his wife, Nafiseh Panahi" Sahamnews website said. Panahi was later released but there was no further news of Ali Karoubi, it said. Sahamnews said there were concerns for Mehdi Karoubi himself after security forces raided his house on Monday night and confiscated documents and books. "After last night's incident and despite...

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian judiciary official on Wednesday pointed to the Iranian nation's massive and strong call for the trial of the leaders of recent unrests in the country, and said that the judiciary will definitely try sedition masterminds Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. "The judiciary will definitely fulfill its duty with regard to the trial of Mousavi and Karroubi," Deputy Chief of the Judiciary for Legal and Judicial Development Hojjatoleslam Ali Razini told FNA. Asked if the judiciary would issue orders for detaining sedition leaders, Razini pointed out that when it comes to the trial of suspects, judiciary...

Iran's chief prosecutor has insisted that opposition leaders who ran in the disputed 2009 presidential election will be put on trial over anti-government protests that sparked widespread unrest in the wake of the vote. Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi's statement came weeks after the government issued a travel ban for former candidates Mir Hossain Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi on allegations of being "mohareb" - a term meaning they are 'fighting against God'. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across the country in support of Mousavi after the presidential poll, alleging that president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad had won the election by...

BBC Persian is reporting that opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi has made a pointed intervention with a letter to former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, in Rafsanjani's capacity as the head of the Assembly of Experts. Karroubi's letter, sent to Rafsanjani just before this week's bi-annual Assembly meeting, called on the Assembly to exercise its powers to "monitor the functions and institutions under the auspices of Iran's Supreme Leader". Karroubi cited problems such as "a lack of independence of the judiciary and courts", the interference of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and Basij militia in political issues, and the IRGC's expanded involvement in...

TEHRAN, Iran – Pro-government militiamen attacked the home of an Iranian opposition leader with homemade bombs and beat one of his bodyguards unconscious, an opposition website reported, in an apparent attempt to keep him from attending a key rally on Friday. Mahdi Karroubi's guards had to fire gunshots in the air to clear crowds that broke down the door of his home on Thursday night after days of gatherings outside, said the Sahamnews website, which supports Iran's pro-reform movement. The report said the attackers were members of the plainclothes Basij militia, which led the crackdown on protests that swept the...

Reporting from Tehran and Beirut — Iranian security forces patrolled central Tehran on Thursday and the home of a reformist leader reportedly remained under siege by pro-government militiamen in what appeared to be attempts to intimidate the political opposition ahead of rallies planned for Friday. Riot police lined the streets near Enghelab Square and around Tehran University in the morning hours ahead of Friday's gatherings to mark Quds Day, an annual event in support of the Palestinian struggle against Israel that the government fears will draw opposition supporters to the streets. State-run media have called on government supporters to turn...

TEHRAN — Iran's opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi was surrounded while in the house of a senior cleric in the holy city of Qom on Sunday by regime supporters who also attacked his car, an opposition website said. Karroubi had travelled to Qom in central Iran for a mourning ceremony and later called on Ayatollah Yousef Sanaei at his home when "forces linked to the power (regime) surrounded the house," Kaleme.com said.

For the second day in a row, an Iranian opposition leader has publicly questioned a pillar of the Islamic Republic, a sign of increasing boldness on the part of Iran's so-called Green movement. Mehdi Karroubi called for an abolition of the Guardian Council's power to oversee elections, a direct swipe at the conservative body's leader Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who recently likened the opposition to defiant "Jews" who ought to be executed. "The Guardian Council's ugly arbitrary vetting process has to be abolished," Karroubi said Wednesday in a fresh statement posted to his website Sahamnews.org (in Persian). He reiterated his and...

TEHRAN — Opposition heads on Saturday implicitly called for demonstrations on the February 11 anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution, as the elite Revolutionary Guards warned that any such protest will be crushed. Iran, meanwhile, put on trial 16 anti-government protesters, two of them women, who were arrested in late December on the Shiite mourning day of Ashura, the official IRNA news agency reported. Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who have spearheaded protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, met and invited supporters to demonstrate on the anniversary day, Karroubi's website Sahamnews.org said. The two opposition leaders said Thursday's hangings of two...

Iran reformist Mehdi Karroubi's car 'fired on' Mr Karroubi is a leading figure in the opposition Green Movement Iran opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi's car has been fired on in the northern city of Qazvin, his website reports. Mr Karroubi, who was in the city for a religious ceremony, was in the car at the time but was not said to be hurt. The shooting happened shortly after he left a house that had been surrounded by what the site called a well-organised group throwing stones. Mr Karroubi was a reformist candidate in June's election, and has protested strongly against alleged...

When he eagerly joined the mass street protests that followed Iran’s tainted June 12 presidential elections, Ibrahim Sharifi, 24, hoped only to add his voice to the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators demanding that the government nullify the results. He never imagined that he would eventually have a far greater impact, as the only person willing to speak publicly about the brutal treatment he was subjected to in prison, including rape and torture. Mr. Sharifi, who recounted his ordeal to the opposition leader and former presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, and then released a video account last month on opposition Web...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian security agents on Tuesday raided offices connected to senior reformist leader Mahdi Karroubi, arresting four aides and closing the headquarters of his political party, which had been probing abuse of protesters arrested in the country's postelection crackdown. The raids appeared aimed at crushing a campaign spearheaded by Karroubi to bring to light alleged torture and rapes of detainees — allegations that have deeply embarrassed Iran's government and clerical leadership. The raids also come amid increasing calls by hard-line clerics and commanders in the Revolutionary Guard for the arrest of Karroubi and fellow opposition leaders Mir Hossein...