Mehdi Karroubi, the two-time speaker of parliament, was among the closest members of the inner circle of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. After serving prison sentences during the regime of the former shah of Iran, in 2011, he was again detained and imprisoned following a demonstration of members of the Iranian opposition in support of the people of Egypt and Tunisia. This month marks his fourth year under house arrest as he approaches his 80th birthday.
Karroubi’s followers consider him a leader of the Green Movement, the movement that was born out of opposition to the 2009 presidential elections, in which incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared victor.
Fatemeh Karroubi, who answered Al-Monitor’s questions via email, spent a period in detention alongside her husband but was later released. This is her first interview in four years. A former member of parliament herself, she revealed previously unpublicized details of the house arrest and said that while some aspects of her husband’s house arrest have improved slightly (such as access to newspapers and a visit by Iran’s new health minister), Mehdi Karroubi remains steadfast and continues to demand an open trial, something he so far has not been granted.
The full interview, translated from Persian, follows:
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