Mehdi Kharroubi’s son denounces: my father and my brother punished without legal basis

Since 2011, Mehdi Kharroubi is under house arrest for participating in peaceful Green Wave protests. He was never brought to trial. Mohammed Hussein Kharrubi condemned for publishing a letter by his father.

Tehran (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Interviewed by Persian VOA in England, Mohammad Taghi Kharroubi speaks of his brother Hossein condemned to six months in prison, and his father Mehdi under house arrest and constant control from 2011.

Commenting on his brother's condemnation of last March 13, Taghi declares that "it has no legal basis", and "is only to put increased pressure on my family."

According to the national ILNA news agency, he is accused of anti-government propaganda for making public a letter that his father had sent to President Rouhani in April 2016. Kharroubi asked to be brought to trial. "I do not think that publishing such a request would have legal consequences for anyone," said Taghi. The day of sentencing, he tweeted that the letter has not been answered yet.

Mehdi Kharroubi, 79, had unsuccessfully led a presidential campaign in the 2009 election which ultimately assured a second term to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, raising protests from the opposition. The charge of electoral fraud and support for peaceful Green Wave demonstrations led Kharroubi to be confined under house arrest since February 2011. This fate was shared by Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard, an activist for women's rights . None of the three have ever been formally charged. Meanwhile, the Iranian media cannot talk about the issue and the Green Wave movement, which was violently suppressed, is still labeled as subversive.

" Regarding the impact of six years of house arrest on someone of my father's age, all I can say is that the regime will be held responsible if anything happens to him because of these restrictions,"  Taghi reported to the Center for human rights in Iran (Chri) that the phone of the floor where his parents live is detached, so if something happens they are forced to warn security officers first. In case of illness, as happened last week, Kharroubi must be taken to the Intelligence Ministry hospital, which is too far from the house.

Taghi denounces complete control of his parents privacy: "Even basic housework is in their hands." The officers, who live on the first floor of the building, must be informed of everything, even the minimum purchase for the house must be approved before being taken upstairs, where the couple lives. "They want to cut my father out of the current political and social scene in the country. And they have succeeded. "

According Taghi, the condition in which they live the father and the two other dissidents cannot be defined house arrest, but "legal limbo, a situation without precedent, and for that you cannot seek justice through the normal judicial channels. The problem is that they are punished without being convicted."

Attorney Mohammad Jalilian, reports that Hossein intends to appeal his conviction. The Iranian judiciary had no immediate comment, and it is unclear when Hossein’s appeal will be heard.

• Iran
• green wave
• kharroubi
• house arrest