Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi is under “heavy pressure” from Iranian security forces to make “a televised confession,” the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reports.
The campaign cites an unidentified “credible” source in Iran saying: “Karroubi is surrounded by a team of psychiatrists working with his captors to manipulate his mental state so that he will agree to go on camera and make televised ‘confessions’.”
Campaign spokesman Hadi Ghaemi said: “We are extremely concerned for the health and well-being of Karroubi, who is 74 years old, and no one has heard from him for six weeks, not his wife nor any family or associates.”
His wife, Fatemeh Karroubi, who had been under house arrest with her husband since February 14, reported yesterday that Mehdi Karroubi was transferred to a small apartment on July 16, the beginning of the month of Ramadan.
She added that during the 190 days of house arrest, he was allowed only once to go out in the open and take fresh air.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran says: “A team of psychiatrists has joined Karroubi’s captors to manipulate and force him to make televised confessions,” adding that “Iranian intelligence agents have a long history of using such tactics against prominent opposition figures.”
Mehdi Karroubi and MirHosein Mousavi were put under house arrest on February 14 together with their wives when they rallied people to join a demonstration in support of the Arab uprisings in the region. They have been completely cut off from the outside world since then.
There have been no proper legal and official proceedings against the opposition leaders, and the campaign says its sources in Iran have informed them that the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei and his close circle of associates are directly responsible for the opposition leaders’ situation.
The head of the Guardian Council, Ahmad Jannati, described the government’s plan of action against the opposition leaders during the February 18 Friday Mass Prayer, saying: “Their communication channels must be shut down, the doors to their homes must be boarded up, their telephone disconnected, and their internet also yanked off so they cannot send any messages, make statements, or receive them. They must be imprisoned in their homes.”
