Rouhani administration on defensive over house arrests

After reports emerged that one of the Green Movement leaders under house arrest had been checked into a hospital with heart trouble, in separate statements, President Hassan Rouhani and his spokesman defended the administration’s efforts to address the situation of the leaders in detention.

Yesterday, April 29, Narges Mousavi, the daughter of 2009 presidential candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi, tweeted that her father had been admitted to the hospital due to heart trouble. Opposition website Kalame, which is associated with Mousavi, then confirmed the report. Zahra Mousavi, Mousavi’s other daughter, told Kalame that Mousavi began feeling ill last Friday and was finally moved to Tehran’s heart center on Tuesday to undergo an angiography.

Mousavi, his wife Zahra Rahnavard and 2009 presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi have been under house arrest since February 2011 for contesting the results of the 2009 presidential election. Since coming to office, the Rouhani administration has made statements that it is working behind the scenes to secure their release. In February of this year, Karroubi was finally moved from a Ministry of Intelligence safehouse to his own house to serve the rest of his detention.

In a television interview with Channel One yesterday, Rouhani said, “I have not forgotten anything. Thanks to God, my memory has been and is still good. And I remember well what promises I made and what I should do.”