Six former MPs' letter to Khamenei asking for release from detention or trial

Six former members of Iran's Islamic Consultative Assembly have written a letter to Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, asking him to hold a public trial to address the charges against Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard.

Following a letter that Mehdi Karroubi wrote to Hassan Rouhani in April of this year, asking him to ask the "dictatorship" to hold a public trial for him, now six former members of Iran's Islamic Consultative Assembly have made the same request to Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic.

According to the Kalmeh website, Fatemeh Haghighatjou, Ahmad Salamatian, Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoeini, Ali Mazrouei, Hassan Yousefi Eshkouri, and Noureddine Pirmozen, in this letter, as individuals who have each been members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly one or more times and have sworn an oath to defend the constitution and the rights of the people, in accordance with Article 67 of the Iranian Constitution, have deemed it necessary for them to make this request to Khamenei.

These individuals wrote in their letter to Khamenei: "As a representative of the parliament, you are well aware of the final review of the constitution, which in the session of November 4, 1979, this parliament approved Article 168 of the constitution, stating that the investigation of political and press crimes is public and takes place in courts of justice with the presence of a jury, with 57 votes in favor, two votes against, and two abstentions."

Referring to this principle, the authors of the letter have asked Khamenei to pave the way for trials for Mousavi, Karroubi, and Rahnavard.

Of course, they have previously emphasized that Karroubi's letter was addressed to the president, but according to these individuals, "in a trend that has become common in the Islamic Republic and the balance of power within its government, and based on evidence and repeated statements by security and judicial officials, the ability and, consequently, the responsibility to end Mr. Karroubi's illegal detention" lies with Ali Khamenei.

In their letter, former members of the Iranian parliament have called on Khamenei to try the three individuals in accordance with Article 168 of the Constitution, which they have referred to in the letter, if he insists on continuing to detain Mousavi, Karroubi, and Rahnavard.

Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and Zahra Rahnavard have been under house arrest since February 2010, following protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election.

In April of this year, Mehdi Karroubi wrote an open letter to Hassan Rouhani for the first time, indirectly addressing the Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Khamenei, with harsh and critical language.

In his letter to Hassan Rouhani, Karroubi wrote: "I neither demand that you lift the restrictions, nor do I consider this task within your control; but I ask you, based on the duty that the constitution and the people have entrusted to you, to ask the autocratic government to form my public court, in accordance with Article 168 of the constitution, even with the composition desired by the master of power, so that with the help of God and in agreement with my lawyers, by hearing the indictment, I can make known to the public my evidence regarding the fraud of the 2005 presidential election, the engineering of the 2009 presidential election, and what happened to the children of this country in legal and illegal detention centers."