Detained Iran opposition leader goes on hunger strike

By Murat Karadag

ISTANBUL (AA) - Mehdi Karroubi, an Iranian opposition leader who has been under house arrest since 2011, declared a hunger strike on Wednesday to demand a public trial, according to his wife.

Speaking to the Saham news website (known to be close to the opposition leader), Karroubi’s wife, Fatma, who is also an outspoken government critic, confirmed that her husband had gone on hunger strike.

Along with a public trial, the 80-year-old opposition leader demands that security forces vacate his home, where he has remained under house arrest for the last six years, according to his wife.

Karroubi stood as a presidential candidate in Iran’s 2005 and 2009 elections.

After losing the 2009 polls to hardline rival Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Karroubi -- who hails from Iran’s reformist camp -- claimed the election had been rigged in Ahmadinejad’s favor.

In 2011, Karroubi urged Iranians to hit the streets in solidarity with the “Arab Spring” uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, prompting the Iranian authorities to put him under house arrest without charge or trial.