Source:
RFE/RL
The son of Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karrubi says he is "happy" that
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has formally denied besieging Karrubi's
home, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports.
Mehdi Karrubi
The IRGC denied on September 5 that they and the hard-line
volunteer Basij militia had besieged Karrubi's home in recent days. The IRGC
said in a statement that the siege was the work of "rogue elements" not linked
to the Revolutionary Guards or to the Basij militia.
Hussein Karrubi told Radio Farda on September 5 that this statement demonstrates
that the reports of the siege published in hard-line dailies like "Keyhan" are
untrue.
"It is very important that an official organization condemns this incident, and
I am very happy about it, because the daily 'Keyhan' yesterday (September 4)
claimed that [my father and I] gathered a few people around our house
intentionally and the incident was staged," he told Radio Farda.
Hussein Karrubi expressed the hope that the Revolutionary Guards will deal with
the "rogue elements."
The IRGC statement also says that men inside Karrubi's house were the first to
shoot at people who were outside. But Hussein Karrubi denied this. He told Radio
Farda that video clips clearly show that "rogue elements" came into the yard of
the house "and started shooting."
"[The rogue elements] aimed to occupy the house and the bodyguards just tried to
stop them," he explained.
Karroubi's house after attacks
The website Saham News had reported earlier that
attackers had opened fire and threw Molotov cocktails at the building, injuring
Karrubi's chief bodyguard.
Hussein Karrubi told Radio Farda that police deployed to cordon off Karrubi's
house simply watched the attackers and did absolutely nothing to stop them.
"Police forces just closed the street from both sides to prevent ordinary people
entering the street and in fact left the rogue elements around our house to act
freely," he said.
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