Aug 17, 2017

Mehdi Karroubi, the 79-year-old leader of the Green Movement that emerged out of Iran's highly charged 2009 presidential election, has ended his hunger strike after his demands have been reportedly met, according to his family members.

His wife, Fatemeh Karroubi, told Saham News that her husband had begun a hunger strike after morning prayers Aug. 16 to “protest his illegal and unconstitutional house arrest.” Karroubi and the other two movement leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, were put under house arrest in February 2011 for calling for protests against the election results.

Saham News said the former parliament speaker and 2009 presidential candidate’s two demands were that security forces leave his house and that he be tried in an open court with his lawyer present. None of the Green Movement leaders have received a trial despite their 6½ years under house arrest. Karroubi has previously written letters to President Hassan Rouhani and Iranian parliamentarian Ali Motahari requesting a trial.

The report also said that the presence of security forces inside Karroubi's home, where they were privy to his private conversations and actions, is unprecedented in Iran and must come to an end. Karroubi has been sick in recent weeks and needed to visit the hospital after suffering heart trouble. According to family members, after mediation by officials from the administration, security forces were ordered to leave Karroubi’s home. The Rouhani administration has also reportedly promised to set a trial date.

His son, Mohammad Taghi Karroubi, told BBC Persian Aug. 16 that his father had requested a trial since the beginning of the house arrests and has said his preference would be to go to Evin prison among other political prisoners rather than continue to remain under house arrest. The son said Karroubi would not protest the sentence of the trial, regardless of what it is. When asked how long his father would keep up the hunger strike, the son said that just as in the protest against the election results, his father would stick with it "until the end."