Fatemeh Karoubi’s Painful Letter

Former Majlis representative and Mehdi Karoubi’s wife, Fatemeh Karoubi, published an open letter revealing his son’s torture and threat to rape and calling on the Islamic Republic supreme leader to justly treat the country’s youth, especially the young protesters detained recently, before it is too late.

Ali Karoubi, Mehdi Karoubi’s third son, was arrested on 22 Bahman while protecting his father against the attack of plain-clothed and special guard forces.  While people and Karoubi’s bodyguards were harshly beaten by batons, paintball and teargas bullets, Ali Karoubi was arrested and released at midnight.

In her letter to ayatollah Khemenei, Fatemeh Karoubi revealed that his son was harshly beaten while in detention, writing that government agents threatened the 37-year-old man to acts inside the mosque that carry the death penalty in Islamic penal law.  

Mrs. Karoubi’s letter is published while, according to a report by the Rooz correspondent, security agents have threatened her in a phone call that they will arrest her other son, Hossein Karoubi.  Hossein Karoubi’s passport was confiscated at the Imam Khomeini airport last week and he was told that he must appear at the ministry of intelligence in two days for certain explanations, although he told Rooz that his appearance date was changed to 27 Bahman later.

Mrs. Karoubi’s letter, which is published on the website Sahamnews, the official mouthpiece of the Etemad Melli (National Trust) Party, was written “only out of concern and to prevent future crimes against this country’s children” and demands that the supreme leader resolve the matter before other youth “die under the torture of irresponsible people and fundamentally undermine the country and the regime’s reputation.”  

In her letter, Mrs. Karoubi referred to Ali Karoubi’s arrest as a “small sample from a sea.”  She wrote, “Ali was arrested for an unwritten crime and for participating in his father’s protection, transferred to the Amir Al-Momenin mosque and was beaten and insulted in the house of god, this divine sanctuary, along with the other detainees.”   

She also regarded her son’s arrest and torture as an attempt to intimidate the other detainees.

This former lawmaker wrote, “During the torture, they filmed him (Ali Karoubi) and, proud to have had arrested Mehdi Karoubi’s son, used the worst words to insult Mehdi Karoubi and his family.”  

According to Fatemeh Karoubi’s letter, “When the order to transfer and release Ali reaches the Shahid Mottahari station, the officer who tortured him said, if you were to remain here for another 24 hours, I would have turned over your corpse.”

According to her, “These individuals have been trained in certain circles to conduct every kind of immoral, illegal and forbidden acts.”