The Iranian Justice Minister says the house arrest of MirHosein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnvard and Mehdi Karroubi is a security issue, not a legal one.
Mostafa PourMohmmadi said on Wednesday September 2 that the decision to arrest the challengers of the 2009 president election results came after a social conflict, adding: “Therefore, we cannot argue the issue of house arrests in the context of legal and judicial provisions.”
After Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was announced the winner of the 2009 presidential election, Mousavi and Karroubi, the two reformist candidates, challenged the results. Allegations of vote fraud triggered widespread street protests, and the authorities responded by attacking protesters.
Scores were killed, thousands were arrested and finally, Mousavi and Karroubi were put under house arrest with their spouses on February 2011. Mehdi Karroubi, MirHosein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard remain under house arrest since 2011.
The justice minister said it was the Supreme Council of National Security that decided to put these figures under house arrest and none of the three branches of government has jurisdiction over it.
PourMohammadi advised avoiding an “emotional” approach toward the house arrests, adding that since they sprang from “tense, turbulent and chaotic” events, only the passage of time can remedy them.
He also urged the media to refrain from inflaming the situation.
