The eldest son of Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi has called on Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to direct Iranian security forces to desist from “unethical and immoral” actions and “the confiscation of the personal property of dissidents.”
Saham News reports that in a letter of May 17, Hossein Karroubi writes to Ayatollah Khamenei: “Did our people rise against the previous regime in order to have an organization more violent and more unethical than SAVAK take over the security affairs of the country?”
SAVAK was the secret police established by the previous regime for handling domestic intelligence and national security. Many of the top figures and leaders of the current Iranian regime, including the Supreme Leader, faced persecution at the hands of SAVAK.
Hossein Karroubi says that in March, Islamic Republic security forces wearing masks stormed his home, accompanied by a representative of the prosecutor, and confiscated documents and property belonging to his father, Mehdi Karroubi, who has been under house arrest since February 2011. He claims a similar thing happened to two of the children of MirHosein Mousavi, the other opposition leader under house arrest.
There had been an earlier report of this attack in the media. According to the earlier report, Hossein Karroubi was also taken to Evin Prison and subjected to interrogation.
Karroubi writes that “only my birth certificate and social security card” have been returned, and the rest of the confiscated property is still in government hands.
Hossein Karroubi compares the actions of the security forces to how the SAVAK agents used to attack the home of his grandfather and father during the time of the old regime, but he notes that at no time did the SAVAK agents confiscate private and personal property during these incidents.
“SAVAK agents held themselves to some standards and would not invade people’s private lives,” Karroubi writes; “but the current security officers have no such barriers.”
Karroubi thus urges Ayatollah Khamenei to “prevent these unethical and immoral actions for the protection of the religious regime.”
Mehdi Karroubi and MirHosein Mousavi were the two presidential candidates in the 2009 election who challenged the election result and were finally put under house arrest in 2011 for their refusal to relent. To date, they remain under house arrest. Zahra Rahnavard, Mousavi’s wife, is also under house arrest with her husband.
