Mehdi Karrubi
Mehdi Karrubi was an Iranian cleric and senior political figure who served as Speaker of the Iranian Parliament (1989-1992, 2000-2004) and later claimed that he had knowledge of negotiations between the Reagan campaign and Iranian representatives in 1980 that delayed the hostage release; he was later placed under house arrest following the 2009 Green Movement.
Mehdi Karrubi was born on January 9, 1937, in Aligudarz, Lorestan Province, Iran. A Shia cleric who studied under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Qom, he became one of the founding figures of the Islamic Republic and held the position of Speaker of the Iranian Majlis (Parliament) in two separate terms: 1989-1992 and 2000-2004. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 2005 and 2009; his second presidential campaign was associated with the reformist wave that produced the Green Movement protests of June 2009.1
October Surprise Claims
Karrubi is significant for the October Surprise subject because of allegations - never independently verified - that he had personal knowledge of negotiations between representatives of the Reagan presidential campaign and Iranian officials in 1980. According to accounts in the 1991 investigation by journalist Gary Sick and congressional investigations of the period, Karrubi was present at or aware of discussions in which Iranian officials were approached about delaying the release of the American hostages held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran until after the November 1980 election.
Karrubi himself reportedly made statements to Iranian journalists in the 1980s suggesting that money had changed hands in connection with the hostage negotiations and that external parties had been involved. The specific claim was that the CIA or Reagan campaign had paid for the delay, and that Karrubi had awareness of the financial arrangements. No documentary evidence for these claims was produced in the various October Surprise investigations, and the 1992 House task force chaired by Representative Lee Hamilton concluded insufficient evidence existed to confirm the conspiracy.2
Ari Ben-Menashe, the Israeli arms broker and intelligence figure whose accounts of the October Surprise are contested, placed Karrubi among the Iranian officials present at the alleged Paris meetings of October 1980. Ben-Menashe's reliability as a witness is disputed.
Green Movement and House Arrest
Karrubi was a leading reformist figure in the disputed June 2009 Iranian presidential election, in which incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner amid widespread allegations of fraud. Karrubi and fellow reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi refused to accept the result, and their supporters launched the Green Movement protests that drew millions of Iranians into the streets in the largest demonstrations since the 1979 revolution.
Following the protests' suppression, Karrubi and Mousavi were placed under house arrest in February 2011 by order of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. As of the time of this writing (2026), Karrubi had remained under house arrest for over a decade, one of the most prominent political prisoners in Iran.1
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