18 August, 2017
A leading Iranian opposition leader who has been under house arrest since 2011, has begun a hunger strike in a bid to push the authorities to try him in public. Two years later, in the wake of the Arab Spring unrest elsewhere in the Arab world, they were placed under house arrest, where they have been held without charges.
Karroubi was hospitalised earlier in the day shortly after launching a hunger strike to demand a public trial and withdrawal of security men from his residence, which is under 24-hour surveillance by the powerful Revolutionary Guards.
The 79-year-old, who suffers from heart disease, was taken to hospital early on August 17, where he was visited by the health minister and deputy intelligence minister.
Mr Karroubi and Mr Mousavi ran in what became a disputed 2009 election that returned hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power and triggered mass protests that were ultimately crushed by the elite Revolutionary Guards and its affiliated Basij militia.
This February, three months before the election, the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected calls for "national reconciliation", indicating that the Green Movement leaders would remain under arrest. But they anxious that complications from hypertension and heart disease could endanger his life. Mohammad Taghi Karoubi, Karoubi's son, also tweeted that the government has promised to do its best to fulfill Karroubi's demand for a public trial.
"At 1:00 AM Thursday, father was sent to hospital due to the hunger strike". "He does not expect a fair trial but wants it to be public and would respect the verdict", Mr Karroubi's wife told Sahamnews.
In response, the doctors had put him on an intravenous drip, he added.
Mohammad Karroubi also said former President Mohammad Khatami had told the Karroubi family that the intelligence ministry should be able to withdraw its 12 agents from their home.
In March, a court sentenced Mr Karroubi's eldest son, Hossein, to six months in prison after convicting him of circulating "propaganda against the regime".
A few Iranian parliament members sympathetic to reformists have stated their support for lifting the house arrest, and visited Karroubi's family when he was recently hospitalized for an operation. He published a letter his father wrote to President Hassan Rouhani calling for a trial.
