Iranian Activist Jailed, Khamenei Warns Election Critics
\n11 January, 2013 – POMED<\/p>\n
Mohammad Hossein Karroubi was sentenced this week to six months in jail for speaking with the foreign media about alleged torture at the Kahrizak detention center in 2009. Karroubi was interviewed by the foreign press after his father Mehdi Karroubi, an opposition leader and former Presidential candidate, wrote a letter to a senior government official saying that he possessed evidence attesting to the rape of several detainees at Kahrizak. The younger Karroubi had charges brought against him by prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, who is currently under suspicion for involvement in the crimes committed at Kahrizak. On his Facebook page, Karroubi wrote that prosecutor Mortazavi \u201dmade my interviews with foreign media into a charge against me, filing a case against me in the Revolutionary court and using everything in his power to land me in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karroubi\u2019s father Mehdi, along with two other opposition leaders, has been under house arrest since 2011 for rallying Iranians to protest in solidarity with the Arab Spring uprisings and for criticizing the 2009 elections. Although no official charges have been brought against the activists, Payvand News reports \u201cThe opposition leaders have been completely cut off from the public for close to two years, and even their children are only given rare opportunities to visit them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karroubi\u2019s house arrest is a reminder to Iranians that, as Guardian writer Saeed Kamali Dehghan characterized, \u201cThe Islamic republic does not tolerate criticism of its election process.\u201d Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei confirmed this notion during a recent speech in which he warned Iranians against criticizing the country\u2019s upcoming elections. In a statement, Khamenei said, \u201dEven those who make general recommendations about the election through [expressing] concerns should take care not to serve the purpose of the enemy,\u201d adding \u201c\u201dWe\u2019ve held more than 30 elections since the [1979] Islamic revolution, which one was not free? In which country you can see elections freer than those held in Iran?\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the speech, Khamenei\u2019s representative in the Revolutionary Guard said the elite military force had \u201ca responsibility to engineer a rational and logical elections\u201d. This triggered a quick response from Iranians on social media who understood the remarks to mean the Guard would be interfering in elections. Even President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who reportedly has a rocky relationship with the Guard, weighed in saying \u201cAnyone who wants to direct Iranian people, Iranian people would direct him.\u201d …source
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