Free Republic

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, Iran -- Iran's opposition leaders faced new threats Thursday with the state prosecutor warning they could be put on trial if they don't denounce this week's antigovernment protests -- the worst unrest since the aftermath of the disputed June election. The warning came a day after crowds at progovernment rallies chanted calls for the execution of the opposition leaders and a group posted an online threat that suicide squads were ready to assassinate those leaders if the judiciary didn't punish them within a week. For a second straight day, government supporters staged a rally wearing white funeral shrouds to...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's state news agency IRNA said on Wednesday that two leaders of "sedition" in the country have fled to a northern Iranian province, but the opposition said its leaders were still in the capital. "Two of those who played a major role in igniting tension in Iran following the (June presidential) vote, fled Tehran and went to a northern province because they were scared of people, who demanded their punishment," IRNA reported.

Defeated Iran opposition leader Mehdi Karoubi gives a rare interview in which he says the Ahmadinejad government is being kept in power by force The Iranian government is being kept in power by force and will not last its four-year term, one of the opposition presidential candidates has predicted.

Mehdi Karubi, secretary general of the Etemad Melli (“National Trust”) Party and the principal revealer of post June 12 presidential election crimes in Iran, has been the subject of threats and attacks from official and unofficial channels associated with coup supporters in the past two days, and Ahmad Jannati, secretary of the Guardian Council, called for his prosecution at the Friday Prayers sermon last week. The day before that, Mostafa Pourmohammadi and prior to that Mohseni-Ezhei had threatened Karubi to judicial proceedings. In response to all threats, Karubi has said, “The court can be a good place for me to...

According to Majid Ansari, member of the Association of Combatant Clerics, cases of sexual abuse of prisoners are certain and the evidence regarding them has been already handed to officials of the Islamic Republic. Mehdi Karoubi, a disputing candidate of the recent presidential elections in Iran, was the first to officially publicize reports of the alleged sexual assault. In a letter to Hashemi Rafsanjani, Chairman of Council of Experts, he had urged an immediate investigation of the reports. After ten days, having received no response from Ayatollah Rafsanjani, he released the letter to the media. While Karoubi and Ansari and...

Abdollah Momeni, spokesperson for the Iranian Alumni Association (Advar-e Tahkim Vahdat), was arrested at Mehdi Karoubi’s campaign headquarters 45 days ago. According to eyewitness reports, he was severely beaten and dragged by officers who arrested him without a warrant. Now, after spending 45 days in prison, Momeni has lost nearly 20 kilograms as well as his physical and mental stability. His wife, who met with him yesterday, discusses his worrying situation with Rooz. Abdollah Momeni’s wife, brother and children visited him at the Evin Prison yesterday while the student activist was not able to move or speak. Momeni’s wife, Fatemeh...

An opposition candidate in Iran's disputed presidential election blasted what he called the "thoughtless and clear lies" of the country's security forces Sunday, while students mounted new demonstrations at a university in Shiraz. Former parliament speaker Mehdi Karrubi, who ran last in the June 12 election, compared government claims that it had not attacked his supporters to the statements that came out of the Iranian monarchy in the days before the 1979 revolution that established the Islamic republic, according to Iran's Aftab news agency. "How do they try to say that they do not confront people violently or to blame...

The political party of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Karoubi has called off a protest rally planned for Saturday in downtown Tehran. The political party of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mehdi Karoubi has called off a protest rally planned for Saturday in downtown Tehran, the Etemad-e Melli party said. "Because permission was not obtained, the rally today has been cancelled," a party spokesman told Reuters.