Iranian reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi accused Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei of endorsing alleged rigging in the disputed 2009 presidential election and backing the deadly crackdown on the Green Movement protests which followed.
Karroubi made the remarks during a meeting with the family of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the Green Movement leader who has been under house arrest since 2011. Both men were presidential candidates in the disputed 2009 election, which they contended was marred by fraud and irregularities.
“In the 2009 election, Mr. Khamenei not only did not tolerate the people’s vote, but he supported fraud and violent suppression and accused us of sedition, lack of insight and indecency,” Karroubi said.
The 2009 election, in which authorities swiftly declared Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner, triggered one of the biggest street unrests since the 1979 revolution, with mass demonstrations and a crackdown by security forces. Khamenei at the time urged Iranians to accept the result and later warned protesters to end rallies.
"Khamenei claimed insight, but destroyed the economy, culture, security and ethics, and what you see today is the product of that wrong approach,” Karroubi was quoted as saying by Iranian media.
Karroubi, who is no longer under house arrest, said both he and Mousavi “saw deviation” in 2009 and intervened out of concern for the country, arguing that the growing role of the Revolutionary Guards, Basij militia and security agencies in politics and the economy had “ruined” governance and eroded oversight.
“Oversight bodies lost their effectiveness and unbridled corruption spread throughout the country.”
Karroubi, a former parliament speaker who ran in 2009, also called for the release of Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard. “I hope that childish grudges and stubbornness will end, and that we will soon witness the freedom of Mr. Mousavi and his respected wife,” he said.
Mousavi, a former prime minister who also contested the 2009 vote, has remained under house arrest with Rahnavard since 2011, while Karroubi’s detention eased earlier this year.
Karroubi linked political decisions to Iran’s economic deterioration, citing the currency’s collapse since their detention. “The day we went into house arrest, one dollar was 900 tomans and today it is 108,000 tomans, and if this path is not corrected God knows how much it will be in the near future,” he said.
He also criticized what he called excessive alignment with Moscow by some officials and lawmakers. “The deviation from the revolution and the martyrs’ ideals is such that some military men in parliament tear their shirts for [Vladimir] Putin,” he said.
Mousavi, who in July called for a referendum to convene a constitutional assembly, has said Iran’s political structure “does not represent all Iranians.”
Iranian authorities say the 2009 election was fair and that security measures then and since have been necessary to preserve order.
The veteran theocrat had referenced the “No Kings” protests across the United States on Oct. 18 in a recent speech, calling on US President Donald Trump to listen to demonstrators and refrain from interfering in other countries.
“If you’re that capable, calm them down, send them back to their residences, and don’t interfere in the affairs of other countries,” Khamenei had said.
Ghadyani, 80, who is serving a prison sentence for “propaganda against the regime,” including a 2019 sentence for insulting Khamenei, said the 86-year-old ruler was in no place to lecture Trump.
“Sooner or later, the Iranian people will rise and dismantle the oppressive, authoritarian and anti-national system of Ali Khamenei,” Ghadyani wrote.
“The most peaceful path forward is for him to relinquish his grip on power, seek forgiveness from the Iranian people, and allow a referendum to establish a government of the people’s choosing.”
Insulting Khamenei, considered by Iran's theocratic establishment to be a holy figure, is a crime and Ghadyani has few peers among prominent critics in leveling direct attacks on him.
A former revolutionary turned outspoken dissident, he has faced multiple convictions for his political writings and public statements.
Ghadyani said Khamenei reveals his own hypocrisy and authoritarianism by urging the US president, in his interpretation, to suppress dissent as he does in Iran.
“This criminal autocrat unwittingly exposes his own nature by urging the US president to suppress dissent as he and his anti-people allies do in Iran,” he wrote.
Ghadyani challenged Khamenei’s concept of national security, arguing that it focuses solely on preserving power rather than protecting the Iranian people.
“For tyrants like him, national security and the safety of the people are meaningless. True security lies in the absence of authoritarian rule,” he wrote.
‘Let the public vote’
Authorities in Iran, where Khamenei is that ultimate decision maker, have suppressed with deadly force recurring rounds of anti-government protests in recent decades but have long bashed the rights records of Israel and the United States.
A long-time critic of Khamenei, Ghadyani dared the Iranian leader to test his popularity through a public vote.
“Khamenei dares not admit that over 95 percent of Iranians oppose him and the Islamic Republic. If he denies this, let him, just once, submit himself to a public vote and show the world how deeply the Iranian people reject him,” Ghadyani said.
His latest imprisonment follows a series of letters and speeches in which he has openly called for Khamenei’s resignation and the dismantling of Iran’s ruling system.
Iran continues to grapple with the aftermath of a punishing 12-day war in June against Israel and the United States and the the reimposition last month of UN sanctions triggered by Britain, France and the United Kingdom.
