An Iranian opposition leader incarcerated for heading protests challenging Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 2009 re-election as president, has been transferred to house arrest after spending three years in a state-supervised apartment, his son said.
Mehdi Karrubi, who accused Mr Ahmadinejad of fraudulently winning a second term, will be monitored by security forces living in an adjacent apartment, opposition website sahamnews.org said, citing his son Mohammad Hossein Karrubi.
“Contrary to claims by judiciary and political officials of the Islamic Republic that Karrubi had been held under house arrest in his own home, he was transferred there hours ago,” the report cited Mr Karrubi’s son as saying. It said the family had sought the transfer for two years because his health had deteriorated.
The fates of Mr Karrubi and fellow opposition leader and ex- presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, also detained in 2011, will be a barometer of how far Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will be able to go in delivering election promises of greater liberties. Supporters of Mr Mousavi and Mr Karrubi helped propel Mr Rouhani to victory in June elections.
Both opposition leaders are in their 70s and were accused by Iranian officials of stoking unrest under an alleged Western- backed plan to topple the leadership of the Islamic Republic. Neither has been tried.
Mr Karrubi is ready to stand trial and “won’t protest, no matter what the sentence,” his son quoted him as saying. His sole request is to have a public trial so his defence can be published in the media, he said.
In a July address, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded an apology from the two men, whose names are rarely mentioned in Iranian media.
Since Mr Rouhani’s election, some restrictions have been eased. Some political prisoners have been released, and the government has shown increased tolerance toward the media.
* Bloomberg
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
MATCH STATS
Wolves 0
Aston Villa 1 (El Ghazi 90 4' pen)
Red cards: Joao Moutinho (Wolves); Douglas Luiz (Aston Villa)
Man of the match: Emi Martinez (Aston Villa)
Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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The biog
Title: General Practitioner with a speciality in cardiology
Previous jobs: Worked in well-known hospitals Jaslok and Breach Candy in Mumbai, India
Education: Medical degree from the Government Medical College in Nagpur
How it all began: opened his first clinic in Ajman in 1993
Family: a 90-year-old mother, wife and two daughters
Remembers a time when medicines from India were purchased per kilo
