Iran reinstates Karroubi's National Trust Party

Hojjatoleslam Rasoul Montakhabinia

Deputy Secretary General of National Trust Party, Hojjatoleslam Rasoul Montakabnia announced that their office is no longer sealed and the party has been allowed to resume its political activities.

In an interview with ISNA, Montakhabinia denied rumours about Mehdi Karroubi resigning from the leadership of the party and said: “The party has had no meeting in order make such a decision.”

“At present, we must consider what kind of activity the party can resume in the current political atmosphere,” he continued. “We have had five years of successful activities but unfortunately the confrontation with the party interrupted our efforts.”

The office of Mehdi Karroubi, Secretary General of the National Trust Party, was attacked and all its documents were confiscated in September of 2009. Hours later, the office of the party in Tehran was also shut down.

Earlier a senior interior ministry official announced that there is no court order banning the activity of the National Trust party. He claimed the actual office had been sealed for certain activities unrelated to the party.

Mehdi Karroubi, Secretary General of the National Trust Party, ran against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2009 presidential election and accused the government of securing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory through fraud. He also continued to repeatedly criticize the government for “torturing” post-election detainees in prisons.

He has been attacked on many occasions in public and his home has been repeatedly attacked by pro-government mobs in the past year.