Karoubi Under an Erratic Siege

In an exclusive interview with RoozOnline, the wife of former 2-time Majlis Speaker Mehdi Karoubi characterized the on-and-off blockade of her husband by security forces as “a makeshift siege.”

Fatemeh Karoubi, herself a former Majlis deputy said, “even on some normal days Mr. Karoubi’s house is cordoned off and nobody is allowed to come to the house, and this is not something that happens only on special or religious occasions.”

She also revealed that, “contrary to what law enforcement officials claimed that individuals responsible for the attacks on Mr. Karoubi’s house on the religious nights of Ghadar and Fitr celebrations had been confronted, in practice they had not been dealt with.”

Saham News, the website of the National Trust party led by Karoubi wrote two days ago that as of Tuesday this week, security forces again prevented individuals from entering her husband’s house by barricading the surrounding area.

This blockade takes place as security forces stationed around Mr. Karoubi’s house have in even confronted some visitor’s and guests, such as family members of former commanders Bakeri and Hemmat, from entering the house and prevented even religious personalities such as ayatollah Bayat Zanjani from entering the house.

Siege by Intelligence Officers
In her interview, Fatemeh Karoubi also said, “agents have taken positions around the house since last week and two days prior to Eid Gorban celebrations, and for four days prevented anyone from entering our house and so nobody could come in except our children. They left for two days and then returned again preventing people from coming in, although their attitude had improved.”

When Rooz asked her whether these blockades took place on holidays and religious days only, with the goal of preventing Mr. Karoubi from participating in demonstrations, she said, “No, this is not the case. As an example, they had come two or three days prior to Eid Gorban and stayed for a few days after it. They sometimes come on regular days as well.”

“The other day, they even prevented Mr. Tahmasebi, the head of Mr. Karoubi’s office for years from entering the house and did not allow anyone to get in except our son,” she added.

Asked whether one could call these bans and  obstructions a “blockade”, Mrs. Karoubi confirmed it and added, “I too believe that this is a form of partial blockade because what they are doing is not only carried out during religious or special days alone. They come, blockade the place, leave and then come back again.”

Mrs. Karoubi, who used to be  the managing editor of Iran Dokht (translated as the daughter of Iran)  magazine said that she believed the officers surrounding her house were from the intelligence apparatus.

Earlier, Mrs. Karoubi had told Rooz that such behavior and actions by the state, and the insults and threats that were thrown at Mr. Karoubi would not have any effect on his will or prevent him from standing up for the rights of the Iranian people. “His crime is that he says if there is crime, rape and torture in prisons you need to stop it,” she had said. “They understood that they had to stop it and we saw that eventually accepted that crimes had taken place at Kahrizak prison. We stand by him and these actions [by the state] do not have the slightest impact on our determination.”

Last March, some 50 plainclothesmen and women gathered in front of Mr. Karoubi’s house and chanted slogans against him, Mir Hossein Mousavi and seyed Mohammad Khatami  - all leaders of the opposition movement in Iran – calling for the state to confront them. Video footage of that particular event shows these individuals painting one side of the building with red paint. Mrs. Karoubi had reported then that some of these intruders had engaged in destroying their property and engaging in theft.

At the time, official news media and website affiliated to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote that these individuals, who chanted pro Ahmadinejad and pro Khamenei slogans, were family members of war veterans and claimed that their actions were not premeditated or pre-planned but to be against the “leaders of the sedition”, a term the regime uses to label the leaders of the Green Movement that has supported the massive demonstrations since the official results of the 2009 presidential elections.

Saham News called these very individuals, “rogues” and associated their behavior to be directed by the state.

The most violent attacks on Mr. Karoubi’s house came on the nights of the Ghadar and Eid Fitr celebrations when plainclothesmen surrounded the house for 5 continuous days. The head of the personal guards had to be taken to hospital , the house was damaged and Mrs. Karoubi told Rooz that the plainclothesmen who surrounded her house were equipped with tear gas, sticks and other weapons and had been organized and brought there by others, while law enforcement forces stood by watching the violent events without stepping in.

Soon after that, Sajedinia, the commander of Tehran’s police force announced that 100 individuals had been identified in connection with the attacks on Mr. Karoubi’s house adding that he awaited orders from appropriate judiciary authorities to arrest the individuals.

Some media even reported that two individuals had been arrested in this connection, but Mrs. Karoubi tells Rooz that she is still waiting to see where this talks leads to, but that until now nothing had been done to confront the perpetrators. “They sometimes claim that they will arrest a hundred people while at others times they say something else, but we have not seen any action on behalf of authorities. Our residence is periodically blocked off, and this time it is intelligence officers who do it and their response is different from those who were here during the Eid Fitr celebrations,” Mrs. Karoubi said.

“Such behavior is really unprecedented that some individuals would come and shout insults and destroy somebody’s house,” Mrs. Karoubi continued.

When Rooz asked whether Mrs. Karoubi was pursuing the case legally, she asked, “How could we pursue it? To what authority should be complain? The police was present during those violent events and did nothing to stop it. We trust that only God is the judge and will affect his reprimand in this very world.”

In her interview, Mrs. Karoubi specified that the intruders and mobs that attached her house used tear gas, fired shots, broke water pipes, put the door of the house on fire, while the police did nothing but watch these events.

Deutsche Welle German radio had reported that the attackers belonged to the Jamaran Basij (northern part of Tehran where ayatollah Khomeini used to live) and the shahid Mahalati station, while some of the masked men were from the Farmanieh police station, also in northern Tehran.

Similar attacks and obstacles have been created for Mir-Hossein Mousavi as well during the last 18 months while various state officials at different levels have on numerous occasions made threatening statements to arrest the former prime minister and former Majlis speaker.

In one of the latest such remarks, the spokesperson of Iran’s judiciary Mohseni Ejei responded to a statement issued by Mousavi by threading to confront “this person this year”, if he continued his behavior.