The families of Iranian opposition leaders under house arrest announced today that statements attributed to their parents in the media is false and that MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have not made any assessments of the coming election.
Mousavi and Karroubi, candidates in the 2009 presidential elections, have been under house arrest since February of 2011. The two and Zahra Rahnavard who is also under house arrest with her husband MirHosein Mousavi are completely cut off from the outside world and not allowed to communicate with the public.
The families report: “With the limitations and severe security restrictions imposed on them, they have not been able to make any statements about the coming election.”
The message urged the public to only look at “reliable and trustworthy media outlets” for news of the opposition leaders.
In recent days a number of Iranian media outlets including Mashregh News website and Mehr News Agency have published a number of statements attributed to MirHosein Mousavi.
The two websites have claimed that according to Mousavi “bringing Hashemi Rafsanjani to the election scene is the regime’s game” aiming at convincing the public to return to the election process and forget allegations that the 2009 elections were fraudulent.
Mashregh News has written however that Karroubi has supported the candidacy of Hashemi and called for his support in the election.
Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani supported the allegation of fraud in the 2009 elections calling for a recount of the votes. However, his siding with election protesters earned him the fury of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei who gradually sidelined him from the political scene.
Hashemi’s candidacy has yet to be approved by the hardliners in the Guardian Council.
