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LONDON: Mehdi Karroubi, a detained Iranian opposition leader, started a hunger strike on Wednesday and wants to be put on trial rather than remain under house arrest where he has been held since 2011, his son told Reuters.
The 80-year-old cleric underwent heart surgery last month and has suffered from several health problems in the past few years.
“My father started his hunger strike today after the morning prayers,” Karroubi’s son, Mohammed Taghi Karroubi, who lives in Britain, told Reuters. “He has demanded again to be put on public trial and has also asked for the security forces to leave his house,” he added.
His family said security agents are present at the house he lives in and video cameras and microphones record everything around the clock.
Karroubi, and fellow reformist Mirhossein Mousavi ran for election in June 2009 and became figureheads for Iranians who staged mass protests after the vote they believed to be rigged brought back hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Karroubi, Mousavi and Mousavi’s wife Zahra Rahnavard were confined to their homes in February 2011 after the opposition leaders called supporters to rally in solidarity with pro-democracy Arab uprisings.
“The Islamic Republic usually presents house arrest as a favor to the detained people and says they would face harsh sentences if go on trial. My father says he is not worried about results of any trial, even if it’s a death sentence,” Taghi Karroubi said.
Karroubi supported President Hassan Rouhani’s bid for a second term in office and voted for him in May’s elections, but Rouhani has yet to deliver promises and release the opposition leaders.
Iranian officials have said that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in major state affairs, ordered the house arrest of the opposition leaders.
Karroubi, the former speaker of Parliament, has been accused of being a “seditionist” and “traitor,” but he has not been officially charged.
In another development, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said Iran should not be allowed “to use the nuclear deal to hold the world hostage.”
Haley commented Tuesday after Rouhani warned that the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement with the US and five other world powers could fall apart. Rouhani said Tehran could quickly ramp up and advance its nuclear program if the US continues “threats and sanctions” against Iran.
Haley warned that “the nuclear deal must not become ‘too big to fail’.” She added that “Iran, under no circumstances, can ever be allowed to have nuclear weapons.”
Haley said Iran must be held responsible for launching missiles, supporting terrorism, disregarding human rights and violating UN Security Council resolutions.