Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Friday, March 21, 2014

Toward or away from the rule of law?

A hard-line conservative Iranian judge says that two political opponents are to go on trail and that he hopes to see "the lifting of house arrest" for the two. What is going on in Iran?

Iran takes legal action against opposition leaders

A top member of Iran's judiciary said Tuesday it is taking unspecified legal action against two opposition leaders held under house arrest without charge since 2011 — a possible tentative step toward meeting their supporters' demands that they be given a fair trial to resolve their status.

Larijani

The semi-official Fars news agency quoted senior judiciary official Mohammad Javad Larijani as saying he was hopeful that Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi could be freed after the conclusion of the case…

Mousavi ran against outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2009 election. Reformers disputed Ahmadinejad's victory and there were weeks of demonstrations followed by a crackdown.

In 2011, amid uprisings in the Arab world, the two as well as Mousavi's wife were put under house arrest. Charges were never filed.

Hard-liners blame Mousavi and Karroubi for the 2009 "sedition" and have at times demanded they be prosecuted and executed. But the opposition has also sought a trial for the two in preference to indefinite detention without charge…

In Tuesday's statement, the hard-line Larijani called the two detained men "friends." "I wish the sedition had never happened. We had cooperation with these two beloved men" before 2009, he said. Mousavi was a prime minister in 1980s and Karroubi was a parliamentary speaker in 1990s…

Larijani said the case has "judicial and security dimensions," wording that suggests a top security council headed by the president was involved in the decision…