The daughters of the other opposition leader, Mir-Hossain Musavi, meanwhile, wrote an open letter saying they had been allowed by guards to enter their parents’ home off Pasteur Avenue and visit briefly with their mother and father last Tuesday.
That was the same day that the kaleme website associated with Musavi had apologized for saying the couple had been spirited away and confirmed the Musavis were in their home, although it did not say it knew that from the daughters’ visit.
The daughters’ letter said it really didn’t matter if their parents were confined at home or in a prison or at some other location since they were still under confinement. However, for two weeks the opposition movement had been saying it was very important if they had been forcibly removed from their home.
The comment in the letter appeared to be an effort to downplay the fact that the opposition had wrongly reported at length that the couple had been whisked off to prison. The kaleme website had even said definitively at one point that the Musavis were being held in Heshmatiyeh prison.
The daughters said they had to promise not to discuss politics before they were allowed to enter the home. They said the backyard was “filled” with security officers as well as a black van with tinted windows.
They complained that a security officer sat “self-righteously” in the room with them as they spoke with their parents. They said he ended the conversation by interrupting “as though he were a family member.”
They said their father told them police had gone through the house and removed his files going back to his days as prime minister in the 1980s as well as family photo albums. The daughters said the police also removed art books and other materials their mother had used over the decades teaching at the Arts University.
As for the Karrubis, sahamnews, the webiste associated with Karrubi, said that a family member reported seeing lights in the house last Thursday night. There has been no further reporting since then, suggesting that lights continue each night. There are no reports that anyone has actually seen the Karrubis, however.
The unnamed family member told sahamnews, “We are still of the belief that our mother and father were arrested and kidnaped and taken to an unknown location, but due to fierce domestic and international pressure and the heroic actions of our people, they have been returned to their home.”
The Judiciary has insisted that neither couple was ever removed from their homes, but says they are not allowed to speak with anyone, apart from the one visit the Musavis had with their daughters last week.
Just what has happened remains very unclear. The Karrubis were confined to their home February 10 and the Musavis February 14. Several days later, reports began to circulate that they had been removed. Opposition reports said no lights were seen in their homes. Most importantly, the reports said all the guards surrounding the two homes had been removed; that appeared to be the clincher proving the two couples had been taken somewhere.
But only days later, kaleme quoted one of the Musavis’ daughters as saying she had tried to enter the family home but was prevented from doing so by guards. No one pointed out that the reference to guards contradicted what the website had long been saying.
A week later, the kaleme website apologized and said it was wrong to have reported that the Musavis has been taken from their home, effectively admitting that what the Judiciary had been saying all along was correct.
It remains unclear if guards were actually at the two homes all through this time period.
Another protest march was called for last Tuesday, March 8, to demand freedom for the Musavis and Karrubis. As with the marches called for February 20 and March 1, the government effectively stifled the protests by flooding the streets and squares with officers.