Using his media outlet Saham News, Mehdi Karroubi has struck back at the comments of Ayatollah Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, in last week's Friday Prayers. Jannati effectively called for the suspension of any legal process for those responsible for "sedition", i.e., political prisoners and protestors against the 2009 Presidential election.
Karroubi's response, translated on the Facebook page supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi, should be seen not only as a direct challenge to Jannati, however. It is also an attempt to mobilise the clergy, given their qualms over the Government, alongside the opposition:
[Clerics] have always been the support for people in front of the governments. We have many cases in history tha,t whenever the spiritual leaders were frustrated with the government over its arrests and pain on people, they would negotiate with the government for the release of the prisoners. Currently, according to the families of the political prisoners, some of the Grand Ayatollahs such as Vahid Khorasani [who refused to meet the Supreme Leader when Ayatollah Khamenei recently visited Qom] have promised the families of political prisoners to follow up on their cases....
How come now that the government is in [clerics'] hands, we call for killing and imprisonment of the people....Are these people who were arrested the murderers of Amir al-Momenin (Imam Ali, the first Imam of Shi'a)? Have they used weapons?
A group from within this very establishment has emerged and said, "Where is my vote?" Should you show brutality to this group that you have arrested?
Let's survey and see who are these people that are in prisons. These are the people of this country and are from the families of martyrs or veterans. They are students and professors. Instead of encouraging the courts to show humane and Islamic behaviour you call them to show brutality?...I tell the families of these prisoners, "I swear to God this is not clergy!"
Mr. Jannati! You are lived a long life. Your son, Hossein, was in prison. Do you know what the mother of that boy was feeling?...Wasn't your son Hossein a prisoner and member of MKO [the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, now considered a "terrorist" group by the regime]? Wasn't he in your home after being released from the prison? Didn't you provide for him to get a wife and house? He and his wife were then killed in their team base during fight with the forces of the Revolution. Then you adopted their child and raised [him/her]. Did anybody question you? I have no intention of criticizing you. I want to revive the feeling of being a dad in you. I want you to know the feeling of a prisoner's family from any group, be it Muslim or not, be it Sunni, Dervish, or other religions.
Mr. Jannati! Did you, during the Friday Prayer, defend the blood of those [political prisoners] who were killed under torture [in the prisons] and mention these tortures? Did you in Friday Prayer, warn the armed and security forces, "Beware that three doctors have been assassinated; look who killed them?" Why don't you talk of the murdered doctors and university professors? What happened to the case of Dr. Motamedi [a former minister wounded in a knife attack in his office at Tehran University]? What happened to the case of the university professor, the late Mr. Mohammadi [a scientist assassinated in January]?...See what horrifying and horrendous monster you create from clergymen with your remarks, in the minds of children of these people and their families....
What do you have to do with the judiciary? Do you know what is the result of your remarks? Its result is the same murders by rogue individuals (plain clothes militia) that happen all across this land. The result of these remarks is the same chain murders that happened in city of Kerman [in the 1990s]. These comments and behaviours result in these actions.
Mr Jannati! You accuse these people (the political prisoners) of sedition. They call you seditious because of what you say and the sedition that you are creating. You should be responsive for your actions. If there was a just system in the country with a jury, then we would show you what you did during the past 21 years and how much you violated the rights of people. You sit down with armed and security forces and review and approve or disapprove [from being eligible for election] whomever you like....You are responsible for things that have happened.
Mr. Jannati, the very same actions hurt the independence of Judiciary branch. Your remarks are the reason why the interrogators tell the prisoners that the judge has no power and we have all the authority....
Mr. Jannati, you as the General Secretary and head of the Guardian Council threaten the members of the Parliament against their right to impeach the administration, and are trying to cut the Parliament's power of oversight of the actions of the administration and ministers. With these actions would anything be left of the stature of the parliament and the representatives of the people?
Mr. Jannati, I remind you that the very same individuals who are in prisons today and those who you accuse of sedition and demand to be confronted harshly, are those who at the early days of the revolution resisted and fought with "terrorists" like your son.
At the end I urge all Grand Ayatollahs and senior religious figures to act in order to preserve the dignity of Islam and clergy and also to prevent the violation of rights of prisoners so that...in the future we would not witness actions for which we cannot compensate.