August 5, 2010

Planet Iran/Iran Press News

Today, armed agents attacked Mahdi Karrubi as he attended the wake of one of his relatives, held at Tehran’s Nour Mosque, located in Fatemi Square. The agents threw tear gas and disrupted the funeral services.

Despite all attempts by the guards to deter Karrubi, he was finally able to enter the Mosque; the guards who had disrupted the ceremony left and gathered in front of the Mosque’s gates. As Karrubi exited the ceremony, the guards who had gathered in front of the building began chanting slogans and threats against him.

Fars News, the media arm of the Revolutionary Guards put this spin on it however: “A number of those in attendance had planned to physically attack Karrubi and to throw him out of the mosque but they were confronted with Karrubi’s body guards. Karrubi’s guards used tear gas and pulled out weapons, threatening all the rest of the people who were present.”

After the incident however, Taghi Karrubi, Mahdi Karrubi’s son gave Deutsche Welle an interview where he maintained that the actual attackers were in fact members of the Revolutionary Guards. He said: “My father had gone to the Nour Mosque to participate in a wake and funeral ceremony of a friend from his home town. When he entered the area where the ceremony was being held, approximately ten individuals who were clearly from the Revolutionary Guards accosted him. Not a single one of them had any resemblance to his body guards, so my father asked one of them if they were members of the Revolutionary Guards. Then when the mourners began to surround these men, the pulled out their guns and pointed it at them. Then they began throwing tear gas. They did this because they were worried about the reactions of the mourners, toward them.”

In response to the Deutsche Welle interviewer about the reason for attacking Mahdi Karrubi, Taghi Karrubi replied: “This is a sign of the issues that have occurred over recent days; meaning that it’s all about my father’s stance toward the participation of the military within the areas of politics and economy, as well as my father’s response to Ahmad Jannati.”

In recent months the regime’s guards have stepped up attacks and confrontation with Karrubi. The last attack on Karrubi was in mid June in Qom.

France has called on the Iranian regime authorities to guarantee the safety and protection of Mehdi Karoubi, who as French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner said, is under threats. “We have learned that Mr. Karoubi is now being threatened, though he has clearly called to respect democracy. We express our deep concern and call on Iranian authorities to ensure his and all other opposition leaders’ safety and protection.”