Iran should wise-up on Rights Abuse and not make same mistakes as the Gulf Monarchs

Iranian Activist Jailed, Khamenei Warns Election Critics
11 January, 2013 – POMED

Mohammad Hossein Karroubi was sentenced this week to six months in jail for speaking with the foreign media about alleged torture at the Kahrizak detention center in 2009. Karroubi was interviewed by the foreign press after his father Mehdi Karroubi, an opposition leader and former Presidential candidate, wrote a letter to a senior government official saying that he possessed evidence attesting to the rape of several detainees at Kahrizak. The younger Karroubi had charges brought against him by prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, who is currently under suspicion for involvement in the crimes committed at Kahrizak. On his Facebook page, Karroubi wrote that prosecutor Mortazavi ”made my interviews with foreign media into a charge against me, filing a case against me in the Revolutionary court and using everything in his power to land me in jail.”

Karroubi’s father Mehdi, along with two other opposition leaders, has been under house arrest since 2011 for rallying Iranians to protest in solidarity with the Arab Spring uprisings and for criticizing the 2009 elections. Although no official charges have been brought against the activists, Payvand News reports “The opposition leaders have been completely cut off from the public for close to two years, and even their children are only given rare opportunities to visit them.”

Karroubi’s house arrest is a reminder to Iranians that, as Guardian writer Saeed Kamali Dehghan characterized, “The Islamic republic does not tolerate criticism of its election process.” Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei confirmed this notion during a recent speech in which he warned Iranians against criticizing the country’s upcoming elections. In a statement, Khamenei said, ”Even those who make general recommendations about the election through [expressing] concerns should take care not to serve the purpose of the enemy,” adding “”We’ve held more than 30 elections since the [1979] Islamic revolution, which one was not free? In which country you can see elections freer than those held in Iran?”

Following the speech, Khamenei’s representative in the Revolutionary Guard said the elite military force had “a responsibility to engineer a rational and logical elections”. This triggered a quick response from Iranians on social media who understood the remarks to mean the Guard would be interfering in elections. Even President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who reportedly has a rocky relationship with the Guard, weighed in saying “Anyone who wants to direct Iranian people, Iranian people would direct him.” …source