Seyed Mehdi Mousavinejad, a member of the clerical faction of the Majlis told Rooz that appropriate state agencies if there was no court ruling or a resolution against former president Mohammad Khatami. Otherwise, the law must be implemented. If the former president is banned from speech, there is a ban on his picture being publicly displayed or if he is on the exit-ban list, this should be officially announced.
Mousavinejad is among ten parliamentarians who have asked Iran’s minister of justice to ascertain whether there is an exit ban, a publication ban or a speech ban on Khatami.
In an interview with Rooz’s Fereshteh Ghazi, Hossein Marashi, the spokesperson for the Hezbe Kargozaran Sazandeghi party (Agents of Reconstruction) said that there was no such court ruling or parliamentary resolution against Mr. Khatami. Tehran’s former mayor Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi also mimicked these words to Rooz in an interview yesterday.
But despite these, Mousavinejad, the representative from Dashtestan province and a member of the hardline Principlist faction – to which former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad belonged – said such a court sentence exists, as he and nine other parliamentarians insisted on the implementation of the law. He did not specify who had issued such a sentence and when asked why he called for a speech ban when Majlis representatives should be defending the rights of citizens, he simply said that he did not do judicial or legal work and that he merely called for the implementation of laws.
Here are the excerpts.
Rooz: What is the basis of your request from the minister of justice about Mr. Khatami when it has been said that there is no court ruling against him?
Mousavinejad: No official source has said that there is no ruling against him.
Rooz: Those close to Mr. Khatami have said this.
Mousavinejad: They are not official sources. No official sources have denied the existence of such a ruling.
Rooz: So you believe there is such a ruling?
Mousavinejad: Yes.
Rooz: What is the basis for such a ruling?
Mousavinejad: You need to ask the security agencies.
Rooz: Mr. Kowsari says such a Majlis resolution. Can the Majlis deny the rights of a person?
Mousavinejad: Then you need to ask him. I assert that there is a resolution against Mr. Khatami that must be implemented. If there is no resolution, then the appropriate authorities should officially announce this.
Rooz: The Majlis is responsible for defending the rights of citizens. How can it deny a citizen his rights?
Mousavinejad: The Majlis does not deal with legal or judicial issues. It oversees the implementation of laws and state agencies.
Rooz: What is your issue with Mr. Khatami?
Mousavinejad: I have no issue. We must insist that laws must be implemented.
Rooz: But some say your action is a political one in preparation for the future elections, and related to Mr. Khatami’s popularity?
Mousavinejad: This is not about Mr. Khatami or the elections. Those who work with laws expect them to be implemented. If the supreme national security council has a resolution then it must be implemented. It should officially announce this. If not, then other agencies should announce this.
Marashi insists that there is no ruling against Khatami. He further said, “What Majlis representatives say is not the official position of the Majlis, their personal opinion. Whether his opponents like it or not, Mr. Khatami is a credible political personality in Iran who has always been influential. Some want to destroy this. This is good for the country. Even if he is not in government. I hope that the future Majlis will be free from such individuals,” (who oppose and question national figures such as Mr. Khatami).
He continued, “Such words will not have an impact. Mr. Khatami, his reformist faction and allies such as Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani and his allies have a lot of problems in the future elections but these words will not have a decisive impact.”
Kowsari, one of the ten signatories of the recent request, has told IRNA news agency that the issue of the ban on Mr. Khatami’s photographs being displayed in public had been approved by the Majlis and that the parliament was now collecting signatures to implement this resolution.
Nasrollah Pejmanfar, another signatory, has claimed that Iran’s supreme national security council had issued such a decree but that it had to investigate why the decree had not been implemented. He added that if conditions had changed, then a follow-up decree should be issued by the council. His request however was not confined to that of the minister of justice and he has called for a response against those media that have violated this ban and have published his speeches and statements.
The person who is said to be the leader of this letter to the minister of justice is Javad Karimi Ghodoosi. He told Shargh newspaper, “After the events of 2009, the supreme national security council issued a decree banning Mr. Khatami from leaving the country, his photographs being published or posted and he himself is banned from giving public speeches.”
This 10-signatory letter by Majlis representatives was published after the signatories meet with the supreme leader of Iran. Last month, 26 Majlis representatives had a private meeting with ayatollah Khamenei. And even though no details were posted on the meeting, Karimi Ghodoosi announced after the visit that the supreme leader had said that Khatami was a rogue of the revolution and that the media, the (hardline) Principlists and the elite had to take a position against him. Ghodoosi, himself a member of the Principlists faction, also asserted that Khamenei had said that Khatami was a “key source of the sedition.” (Sedition is a term Iranian officials use for the mass opposition to the official results of the 2009 presidential election.)
Last year, former president Khatami announced that after the disputed 2009 elections, he had been banned from leaving the country for four years. He failed to secure his exit permit to attend Nelson Mandela’s funeral last year.
