Opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi has been moved to a more appropriate location for his house arrest, says his son, after authorities finally bowed to pressure from his family.
Karroubi was being held in a small office apartment, and his family had stressed that the cramped conditions were highly detrimental to his health.
Mohammad Taghi Karroubi wrote that the rent for the new apartment is being shared by the Karroubi family and the Ministry of Intelligence, due to the presence of their forces in the apartment. He added that the authorities have been refusing to allow his mother, Fatemeh Karroubi, to stay with her husband.
The opposition leader was first put under house arrest with his wife last February, after he and MirHosein Mousavi rallied people to join a march in solidarity with the recent Arab uprisings.
However, in August, Mehdi Karroubi was transferred to a small unit, where the authorities claimed there was no longer enough space to keep Fatemeh Karroubi together with her husband.
Karroubi’s son also reported that his father’s spirits were high and he was unwavering in his political stance despite all “physical pressures.”
Mehdi Karroubi and MirHosein Mousavi both challenged the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidential victory in the 2009 election and were, thus, subjected to growing pressure by the authorities, until they were both finally put under house arrest and completely cut off from the public.
Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, have been under house arrest since February 14 at their home in Tehran and denied any contact with the outside world.
