Karnibi's Letter to Sadeq Larijani
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
To Mr. Larijani,
The honorable head of the judiciary,
Greetings,
As you know, after the controversial presidential election and its painful, alarming
aftermath, I wrote many letters to the officials to share with them certain points, critiques
and objections and to give the necessary warnings. The last of these letters was addressed
to you. You have just recently accepted responsibility [ of the judiciary and are chief
justice. And now I will share with you the details of my meetings with your
representatives and some of the marginal events that took place which led to my personal
office and party being sealed. I do this as a religious and patriotic obligation. So that
future generations do not say that Karrubi was frightened off by pressure and arrests.
Even if you do not know, others do know that in the my past, pressure and threats and
limitations not only did not deter me, but made me even more determined in the path I
had chosen to follow.
Mr. Larijani,
I don't know how updated you may be of our sessions with the committee you had
appointed [ from the judiciary . To inform you and the people, I must tell you that we had
two meetings with the honorable Mr. Khalfi, Mohseni Eje'i, and Raeesi, and these
meetings went well and a glimpse of the evidence [ we hadi from the regrettable,
unforgivable incidents that had occurred were presented. In the first meeting, information
about three people was given, along with a CD and the necessary documents which were
all evidence of torture and rape that had been inflicted on boys and girls in identified and
unidentified detention centers. In addition to these three documents, we personally hinted
at what had happened to two girls, Taraneh Mousavi (the real one) and Sa'ideh
Pouragha'i. The second meeting was this Monday and lasted for three hours and in this
meeting too, in addition to our many debates, I put forth one of my other documents on
one condition: that nothing would happen to this individual or the family just because of
[ ourl demand forjustice.
[ We did not want anything to happen to the family — things that did happen to another
individual who I had introduced in another document, during the time of the previous
prosecutor of Tehran [ Mortazavfl and that family was forced to endure pressure and pain.
Thus, this time I gave my evidence and I warned that the neglect of the previous
prosecutor must not be repeated, we must not have wrongdoers enter this scenario, people
who are not after justice, but would rather threaten and dishonor the person [ evidencel
that I had put forth, people who will sell off the honor of the judicial system, and that too
in an Islamic society, for the price of keeping the culprits safe.
I should also add that in these meetings that took place to look into the allegations of
torture and improper behavior in prisons and the events after the election, they repeatedly
asked me: do you think it is beneficial to go on collecting information about rape and
torture and the killing of people, is it not possible that these documents will get in the
hands of the wrong person? And I replied that I keep these documents in a safe place, and
if we reach a conclusion I will destroy them. And I reaffirmed that documents which
reveal rape and torture are nothing to be proud of for me to want to keep, or to put on a
wall. These are documents that will help us achieve justice and get back the rights of the
oppressed and once that is achieved, they will be destroyed and the vile smell and
hideous face of evil will be destroyed with them.
[ I also saidi know this, that if in my investigations I conclude that any of these allegations
are false, I will step forward and right this wrong. In this regard, my further investigations
had proven the falsity of some of the previous statements I had made about Sa'ideh
Pouragha'i, which I corrected.
In any case, these two meetings were over, and in the end, I pointed to another new
painful case I had just heard and I added that Jam in the process of following up this new
case and I will present my documents once I am done. I was also asked to look further
into the hidden aspects of the Taraneh Mousavi case, and to help the judiciary shed more
light on this issue. At the end of the second meeting I gave a suggestion- which was met
with the approval of the committee — that we should put an end to this process of taking
and bringing documents and that you [ the judiciary can now start investigating the truth
with the documents that have already been presented. Because those documents were
enough to reveal the truth and to identify the guilty parties.
Mr. Larijani,
I gave this suggestion and left, and our meeting with the committee came to a good end.
But the day after, the tides turned. On the orders of Tehran's prosecutor, a group attacked
my office. They searched the office and in doing so, they did not limit themselves to the
office documents, but searched and confiscated my personal letters and writings, my bills
and private papers. In the end, they sealed my office, and even confiscated the charity
supplies I gather there every year. They arrested Mr. Davari, the editor of the Etemad
M dli website. They had not finished shutting down my office when they did the same to
the office of the Etemad M dli party, of which I am the executive. They unlawfully
confiscated the documents of a party that is registered under the laws of the Islamic
Republic and finally sealed the office of the party as well. These actions did not suffice
and they arrested Dr. Alireza Beheshti, the son of the late Ayatollah Beheshti and Mr.
Morteza Alvin, that devoted revolutionary who was once a member of parliament and the
mayor of Tehran, and the ambassador of the Islamic Republic in Europen countries.
The Office of the Publication of Ayatollah Beheshti ‘s Books, one of the founders of the
Islamic Republic, was also sealed. I am left wondering: did these events occur on
Tuesday as a result of my meeting on Monday? I am left baffled not by what they have
done to Karrubi, but that they think that Karrubi, the son of Ahmad, is going to leave the
field and choose to remain silent? Now I know why some friends and advisers insisted
that I give all the evidence for rape and torture as it had been retold to me by the victims,
on a CD and to keep a copy in a safe place. Because the machine of terror is still at work
and who knows, some of the witnesses may now take back their claims out of fear.
Because, the Islamic Republic has reached a place where even the house of Mehdi
Karrubi is no longer a safe place. Because any horrible, indecent act is possible in the
Islamic Republic and nothing is far from the imagination.
Mr. Larijani,
I still insist on the original letter I wrote to the head of the expediency council, and after
the terror of recent events, I am more determined than ever. When I see that the head of a
military organization — the documents are all available — writes a letter to the ministry of
health and orders it forbidden to give copies of medical records to those who have been
inured in recent events, and prevents the hospitals from giving the victims their records, I
am more determined to find out what reasons exist for such threats and fear? According
to the oath doctors take, they are obliged to treat anyone who comes to them, even if the
injured is a long, lost enemy of their father. And you, as the chief justice, should judge
this: how can a doctor feel safe about attending to his medical obligations when such a
letter is written by such a high ranking military official?
If an innocent victim dies in such circumstance, how can you hear the pleas of his/her
family as chief justice [ under such conditionsi? If someone has been raped, how can they
obtain the necessary documents from medical experts and give them to you in such an
atmospheres of terror? Before, we argued why military personnel were entering the
spheres of politics and economics. We now see that politics and economics were not
enough to satisfy their hunger, and they have now entered the field of medicine as well.
Mr. Larijani,
I assume that you claim to represent justice and I am certain that you are well aware of
your responsibility to defend the victim and to punish the oppressor. Thus, in response to
your religious and legal obligations, and for the sake of the public, I ask of you to
demand that the documents that have been released be investigated. And in this path, I
ask that you prevent this atmosphere of terror. And that you do not allow armed and
paramilitary forces to contemplate an intervention into law, as they have done politics
and medicine. Do not allow them to conquer another mountain after they did the
presidential election and creating an even worse situation. I also recommend that in this
environment where thanks to the ex-prosecutor, the free press has been silenced; you do
not allow some to take paper to pen claiming to do so for Islam, when in reality, they are
doing it against Islam. Do not let them enter an even safer haven where they can spread
their vulgarity and blast any hopes for justice and terrorize and ridicule revolutionaries.
Do not let counterfeit documents take reign, to a point where national TV can broadcast
another sham scenario like that of Taraneh Mousavi, and create new ambiguity and
chaos, to throw such deep stones in the well that even one hundred fair minded people
can not attempt to bring them out.
Mr. Larijani,
You formed a committee to investigate the regretful events and the wrongdoing that
occurred after the election and Mr. Khalafi, who was your representative, claimed on
your part that you have said that these claims must all be thoroughly investigated. But my
question is this: after such terror, fear and threats, is it even possible to attend to the terror
and atrocity that occurred after the election? You are left to answer this question but
know that Mehdi Karrubi still insists on reclaiming the rights of the oppressed. Such old,
overused tactics may work to silence some, but they will not work on Mehdi Karrubi and
he will forcefully take a stand, and he will not allow a group of nouveau riche to sell off a
country and the legacy of an Imam which was attained after a democratic revolution and
the blood of many martyrs.
With hopes of your success in the judiciary,
Mehdi Karrubi
