DUBAI: Leading Iranian opposition figure Mirhossein Mousavi, hospitalized for tests on his heart, was taken back to his house yesterday where he has been held by authorities for more than a year, an opposition website said.
Mousavi and fellow reformist Mehdi Karoubi ran for election against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009 and became figureheads for protests by Iranians who accused the government of rigging the vote to bring back the hard-line incumbent.
The government denied any vote rigging and said Iran’s foreign enemies had plotted to overthrow the country’s leaders by stirring up the protests, the biggest opposition demonstrations since the 1979 revolution. Kaleme website said Mousavi was taken to a hospital in the capital Tehran on Thursday where he underwent cardiac tests.
“Mirhossein Mousavi was taken back to his home prison today after he underwent some angiogram procedures,” the website reported on Friday, adding that the opposition leader was in a stable condition.
Mousavi, his wife Zahra Rahnavard and Karoubi have been held incommunicado since February last year when the two leaders called their supporters onto the streets for a rally in support of uprisings in the Arab world — the first demonstrations by their pro-reform “Green movement” since street protests were crushed by security forces at the end of 2009.
Since then, the two opposition leaders have not been seen in public.
A senior adviser to Mousavi during his presidential campaign and leading exiled opposition figure Ardeshir Amir Arjomand told Reuters on Thursday that Mousavi had fallen sick on Wednesday night but was not taken to any hospital until the day after because security forces “wanted to install cameras there.”
Iranian reformist Ali Shakourirad was quoted by Kaleme as saying on Friday that Mousavi was not allowed to see any visitors while he was in hospital.
“He should be under the supervision of his family’s trusted doctor. It is not right to taken someone to a place where he does not trust,” Shakourirad was quoted as saying.
Months after the 2009 election, members of parliament called for Mousavi and Karoubi to be tried and hanged but the authorities chose to isolate rather than officially arrest them, wary of angering their supporters.
Iran opposition leader leaves hospital
