Karrubi's Son Hails Revolutionary Guards' Denial Of House Siege

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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