Iran is set to release one of the prominent figures behind the 2009 Green Movement protests from house arrest in the coming weeks, his son revealed to state media on Monday, according to The Associated Press.
However, previous reports of an imminent release have not materialized.
Mehdi Karroubi, a Shiite cleric, former parliament speaker, and two-time presidential candidate, has been confined to his home since the 2011 Arab Spring protests.
Karroubi and fellow opposition figure Mir Hossein Mousavi were reformist candidates during the 2009 presidential election, and questioned the shock victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad which led to mass protests.
In 2010, government forces firebombed the five-story Tehran home of Karroubi, and beat his bodyguard into unconsciousness.
His son, Hossein Karroubi, informed the state-run IRNA news agency on Monday that security officials had notified his father of his upcoming release, expected in early April.
While he did not name the officials, he stated that Iran’s judiciary had issued the order.
There has been no official confirmation regarding any release order for the aging opposition figure.
The younger Karroubi has himself been arrested several times. In 2017, he was sentenced to six months in prison over “propaganda against the regime”, after he published a letter his father sent to then-President Hassan Rouhani.
He was arrested again in 2020 amid protests against the Iranian regime over the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane.