Iran opposition figure takes forceful stance

If Iranians defy their government and turn out again Wednesday in new mass political protests, Mehdi Karroubi is likely to be among them.

Like Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main opponent of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election, Mr. Karroubi is a product of the Islamic republic - a former speaker of parliament and head of a powerful foundation that distributed government funds to Iran’s war veterans.

But Mr. Karroubi, 72, has been dogged in his denunciation of the regime’s crackdown on postelection protesters, raising allegations of torture and rape of young women and young men that have further blackened the government’s image. He has appeared at numerous protest rallies and appears to be daring the regime to arrest him.

The next big showdown is expected Wednesday, the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy and American hostages by radical students. Government-backed demonstrators in Tehran typically observe Nov. 4 with chants of “Death to America,” but this year they are likely to have company.

Last month, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a hard-line cleric, gave a fiery sermon at Tehran University, warning members of the so-called “green movement” not to take advantage of annual government-sanctioned demonstrations to mount their own protests. That was what happened on Sept. 18, Quds or Jerusalem Day. The last Friday in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Quds Day is supposed to feature government-sponsored rallies in support of the Palestinians and against Israel and the United States. This year, however, demonstrators chanted, “Death to Russia” and “Death to the dictator.”

“There are certain aliens’ puppets … who wish to show their American and Israeli nature” by exploiting such occasions, Ayatollah Jannati said.

In a clear warning to Mr. Karroubi and Mr. Mousavi, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened last week that anyone who continued to question the result of the June election - which gave a tainted victory to Mr. Ahmadinejad - was committing “the biggest crime.”

Iranian Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i and Tehran’s prosecutor general, Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi, have suggested that Mr. Karroubi may face charges before a special clerical court that has jailed and defrocked hundreds of Shi’ite clerics since the establishment of the Islamic republic.

Mr. Mohseni-Eje’i said Mr. Karroubi may be prosecuted for raising the allegations of torture and rape of detainees. Iranian authorities have denied the rape charges - which are particularly damaging for a regime that calls itself Islamic. A three-member judiciary panel set up to investigate the allegations said there was no evidence to prove the claims, and parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani said they were lies.

“These allegations are unsubstantiated, and documents submitted are totally fabricated and aimed at misleading public opinion,” the panel said, and recommended that those making the allegations be prosecuted.

Mr. Karroubi, judging by his background, is an unlikely champion for democracy in Iran, said Haedi Ghaemi, director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Still, “Mehdi Karroubi has become the moral voice in the country protesting the violence,” Mr. Ghaemi said. “He may very well be detained, but the government is worried about the backlash.”

Officials appear divided over whether they should move against Mr. Karroubi given his background as a former pillar of the establishment.

Mr. Karroubi was close to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution, who appointed him head of the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee and a powerful organization known as the Martyrs Foundation to help the families of the hundreds of thousands of Iranians killed in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. During that time, Mr. Karroubi supervised the spending of large amounts of money and allegations of corruption were directed against him. Mr. Karroubi also was criticized for appointing his wife to head the Baqiyatallah Adventist Hospital of Tehran despite the fact that she lacked the necessary medical background.

After the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, Mr. Karroubi became speaker of parliament, succeeding Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who became Iran’s president. Mr. Karroubi served as speaker from 1989 until 1992 and again from 2000 to 2004.

In 2005, Mr. Karroubi ran for president against Mr. Ahmadinejad and several other candidates but was eliminated in the first round of voting. He insisted that he had been cheated and had won more votes than Mr. Ahmadinejad and deserved to compete in the runoff with Mr. Rafsanjani.

A former member of an influential clerical group known as the Association of Combatant Clerics, Mr. Karroubi in 2006 founded his own political party, Etemad Melli (National Trust) and a newspaper of the same name. He resigned from the Expediency Council, a body that is supposed to resolve disputes among government branches.

He ran again for president this summer and took part in a heated television debate with Mr. Ahmadinejad in which the incumbent accused him of taking bribes from Shahram Jazayeri, a young Iranian businessman involved in a high-profile corruption case with the Iranian government. Mr. Karroubi did not respond to the claims during the debate.

Since the June elections, Mr. Karroubi has been among the most outspoken proponents of civil rights in Iran.

Hard-liners have been surprised at his tenacity, remembering that as speaker of the parliament, he acceded to the wishes of Ayatollah Khamenei on matters relating to press censorship.

Mr. Ghaemi said Mr. Karroubi’s transformation appears to be genuine. He compared him to Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who was Ayatollah Khomeini’s chosen successor until he publicly criticized the regime’s executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 when Iran accepted a cease-fire with Iraq after a bitter and bloody eight-year war.

Like Ayatollah Montazeri, who lives under quasi-house arrest in Qom, Mr. Karroubi “is truly outraged” by the regime’s postelection brutality, Mr. Ghaemi said. Mr. Karroubi also feels he owes it to his supporters not to back down, Mr. Ghaemi added.

Mr. Karroubi appears to have the full support of the green movement, of his rival Mr. Mousavi and former Presidents Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, as well as many ordinary Iranians.

The government knows that arresting him could prove risky.

Students have chanted on their campuses in Tehran, Shiraz and other cities, “Karroubi’s arrest will turn Iran into a hell.”

• Barbara Slavin contributed to this report.