Iranian Justice Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi said if MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi declare that “we are committed to the rule of law and peace”, they could become eligible for a pardon.
At a press conference on Tuesday February 4, Pourmohammadi said Mousavi and Karroubi have not been officially put on trial because the establishment has deliberated on the matter and “has taken steps to avoid any new emergence of renewed sedition.”
The justice minister added: “The system is not in favour of violent reactions; however, national interests take priority.”
Three days ago, Mehdi Karroubi was transferred to his own home from a ministry of intelligence safe house. The move has drawn renewed attention to the house arrest of Karroubi and the other reformist presidential candidate of the 2009 election, MirHosein Mousavi, and Mousavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard.
Karroubi, Mousavi and Rahnavard have been under house arrest since February of 2011 for triggering election protests by challenging the legitimacy of the 2009 vote count.
Mousavi and Rahnavard have not been allowed to leave their home for three years, and Karroubi, who was first held in his apartment with his wife Fatemeh Karroubi, was later transferred to the intelligence ministry safe house and kept in a location that, according to the Karroubi family, was highly detrimental to the opposition leader’s health.
Yesterday, Iran’s prosecutor general announced that Karroubi’s transfer does not mean his house arrest has been terminated.
Since President Hassan Rohani took power last August, there has been much hope that the opposition leaders would be released from their house arrest, but so far their situation has not changed.
