Iranian opposition leader decries 6-year house arrest

ISTANBUL

Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi has decried his six-year house arrest without trial or charge as “unethical and unconstitutional”, according to his wife.

The 80-year-old opposition leader, who was put under house arrest by Iranian authorities in 2011 after calling for street protests, is also demanding a public trial.

Speaking to the Saham news website, which is known to be close to the opposition leader, Karroubi’s wife, Fatma -- also an outspoken government critic -- said: “My husband believes this deprivation of his freedom to be illegal, unethical and unconstitutional.”

Demanding a fair trial for her husband, she said Karroubi’s six-year period under house arrest -- during which he has not been given a chance to publicly defend himself -- “is tantamount to leaving him for dead”.

Her husband, she said, “does not expect a fair trial; he just wants a chance to defend himself from the accusations he faces.”

“Would you be comfortable if your home was full of cameras and security officers all the time?”

Karroubi ran in Iranian presidential elections in both 2005 and 2009.

After losing the 2009 polls to hardline rival Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Karroubi -- who hails from Iran’s reformist camp -- claimed the election was rigged in Ahmadinejad’s favor.

In 2011, the opposition leader urged Iranians to hit the streets in solidarity with the “Arab Spring” uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, prompting the Iranian authorities to put him under house arrest without charge or trial.

*Reporting by Murat Karadag; Writing by Sibel Ugurlu