The international Hands of Cain Association, held a press conference in the Italian Senate on February 13, presenting a list of names and criminal records of 23 Iranian regime’s officials and urged the European Union to blacklist them.
This conference was supported, welcomed and attended by the Italian Senators and renowned politicians, bringing this issue to the attention of Italian press and political officials. This conference was held simultaneously with extending the listing of the Iranian regime’s officials on the EU sanctions list.
This conference was moderated by Ms. Elisabetta Zamparutti, an official from Hands off Cain. The event was also attended by former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi. Federico Mollicone, Member of Parliament, Senator Roberto Rampi, Member of the Senate Commission on Human Rights, Senator Lucio Malan, a senior member of the Italian Senate, Ms. Laura Harth, Representative of the Italian Nonviolent Radical Party Transnational Transparency at the United Nations, Ms. Elisabetta Rampelli and Mr. Mahmoud Hakamian from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) Italy representative office. The event at the Italian Senate was covered by Italian medias such as the 24-Hour Italian TV, Kronos News Agency, Radio Radical, and Il Tempo daily.
UN Adopts 66th Resolution Censuring #HumanRights Abuses in #Iran https://t.co/eWM3zb610b#StopIranBloodshed #IranProtests #FreeAllProtesters
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) December 18, 2019
At the beginning of the conference, Ms. Zamparutti, referring to the presence of the Albanian Embassy Adviser in Rome at the conference said: “We all appreciate the Albanian government’s action in accepting more than 2,500 members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran [PMOI/MEK], something that has angered the Iranian regime.” She also referred to how this action has forced the regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei to call Albania a small and evil country, which was immediately met with the reaction of the Albanian president and prime minister in support of the MEK.
Ms. Zamparutti then commented on the new campaign, adding that the European Union has recently updated its blacklist on human rights abusers in Iran, but given that the list is incomplete and so many human rights abusers hold top positions within the regime said that it is necessary to call upon the European Union to put them on its blacklist of sanctions by preparing a new list of human rights abusers in Iran. She said: “The list, as you can see in the leaflet, includes 23 people involved in murder, repression in Iran, including: Ibrahim Raisi, head of the judiciary, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Minister of Communications of Hassan Rouhani’s government, Abbas Salehi, Minister of Culture and Culture and Islamic Guidance, Mullah Mahmoud Alavi Minister of Intelligence and Security, Abolfazl Rahmani Fazli, Minister of Interior, Police Chief Hossein Ashtari, Basij Force Commander Gholamreza Soleimani, Ali Shamkhani Secretary of the Supreme Security Council, Abolhasan Firooz-Abadi a former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces and Khamenei’s military adviser, Hossain Salami Commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Ali Fadavi, deputy commander of the IRGC, Hassan Shahvarpour Commander of the IRGC Wali-e Asr garrison in Khuzestan province, Mohammad Pakpour Commander of the IRGC’s Land Force, Gholam Hossein Ghabparvar, former head of the Basij organization, Mustafa Pourmohammadi, Former Minister of Justice in the Rouhani Government, Asghar Jahangir, Head of Iran’s Prisons, Mansour Gholami, Minister of Science Research and Technology, Mohsen Rezai Member of Expediency Council and Former Commander of the IRGC, Mohammad Ali Abdollahi Coordinator of the Armed Forces Staff, Ali Asghar Hejazi Chief of Security for Khamenei’s Office, Mohsen Qomi, Vice President of International Affairs at Khamenei’s Office, Ismail Qaani Commander of the Quds Force.
Ecco i volti della repressione in #Iran che @HandsOffCain_It chiede siano inseriti nella lista #UE per gravi violazioni diritti umani@GiulioTerzi @DowlatNowrouzi @STRUANSTEVENSON @rampi @LucioMalan @LauraHarth @Matteo_Angioli pic.twitter.com/gVGN2V3f31
— ElisabettaZamparutti (@elizamparutti) February 17, 2020
Ms. Zamparutti added that after the recent demonstrations in Iran and the deaths of more than 1,500 demonstrators, the U.S. government has blacklisted several perpetrators of the killings, and we want to support this right policy.
Senator Roberto Rampi, a member of the Italian Senate’s Human Rights Commission said the regime, in addition to violating human rights, had endangered the security of other countries, including its foiled bombing plot of the NCRI’s annual “Free Iran” gathering in Paris in June 2018, which resulted in the arrest of the regime’s diplomat. “I do not want to point out or condemn any particular person in Europe, but rather we are targeting European policy. The European Union must take significant action against human rights abuses in Iran,” he said. Senator Rampi also said that in democratic countries like Italy one can protest without endangering their lives, but unfortunately in Iran everyone who participates in anti-regime demonstrations risk their lives. He also pointed to how the Iranian regime downed a Ukrainian plane and killed 176 innocent people but was not condemned by the European Union. “We are not against Iran. We are with the Iranian people who have an ancient history, we are against this regime and we are working against it,” he said.
The next speaker at the conference was former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi. “We saw these photos and these crimes today, but unfortunately Europe is still negotiating and dealing with this regime,” Mr. Terzi said. “They were responsible for killing innocent women, children, and young people. There have been many activities in the Berlin courts against the criminals [of the Nazi regime] and many were condemned, but I do not know why there is no action taken against that criminal in Iran, perhaps they consider them sacred”. Mr. Terzi also expressed his gratitude to the Albanian government for accepting the MEK members. He added that unfortunately, Ms. Mogherini, EU’s former chief diplomat, took shameful action. Now, it seems this position has been handed over to someone who wants to pursue the same wrong policy. Mr. Terzi concluded by saying that it was necessary to send an independent fact-finding mission by the United Nations to Iran to closely monitor human rights abuses.
Senator Lucio Malan, a member of the Senate and the Italian Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said that unfortunately, there is no news of demonstrations against the regime and its crimes in the Italian media. Senator Malan criticized how the Italian media broadcasted the funeral of Qassem Soleimani, the eliminated terror mastermind of the regime but not the anti-regime protests. Senator Malan added that in Iran, Khamenei is the only one who decides everything, and the president has no power in this country. He also pointed to the increasing human rights abuses in Iran and the regime’s misogynist laws and how Iranian women are being subjected to attack by acids. Referring to the eliminated commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, Senator Malan said that Soleimani, oversaw a system that used to attack and assassinate abroad, and the Iranian regime builds on such systems.
Ms. Laura Harth, Representative of the Italian Nonviolent Radical Party Transnational Transparency at the United Nations said that our goal is to defend human rights and not just human rights but also civil rights, economic rights and citizenship should be the basis of our foreign policy with countries that violate human right, and our relationship with Iran should be conditioned to these criteria. She also said that the current relationship with the Iranian regime It is at the expense of the rights of workers and civil society. Ms. Hart added that today, not only at the UN Security Council but also at the United Nations Human Rights Council, is it difficult to adopt a decisive policy or pass resolutions against human rights abusers.
The next speaker at the conference, Ms. Elizabeth Rampelli said: “Given today’s talk, the general public has heard less of what happened but tried to keep it secret.” She said that unfortunately, despite condemnations and sanctions, the Iranian regime continues its path of repression and execution. She added that the regime has no popular support. Ms. Rampelli concluded by urging the UN to take necessary actions and Europe should intervene to stop human rights abuses in Iran, not just sanctioning one or two.
Mahmoud Hakamian from the NCRI’s representative office in Italy said: “The Iranian regime is based on two pillars: domestic repression and export of terrorism abroad. Therefore, it has executed over 120 thousand Iranian. During the summer of 1988, over 30,000 political prisoners were massacred in a few months. Yet, the western governments’ appeasement policy prevented the perpetrators of this crime to be tried, therefore they continue to torture and execution in Iran. In November, we saw more than 1,500 youths killed and more than 12,000 arrested in less than three days and they are still under torture.”
He also recalled, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi’s, NCRI’s president-elect, call on the international community to send a fact-finding mission to Iran. He also said that this committee should announce the actual death toll, how they were killed and where they were buried, as well as the status of political prisoners in the mullahs’ prisons. He also repeated Mrs. Rajavi’s call for the immediate and unconditional release of detained protesters especially women and juveniles.
UN adopts 66th resolution censuring human rights abuses in #Iran– The Security Council has to act to stop increasing rights abuses and continuous crimes against humanity by mullahs’ regime #IranProtestshttps://t.co/yMRaD5Ntlw pic.twitter.com/BhNeinbGj7
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) December 18, 2019
Mr. Hakamian Concluded: “We call on the Italian government and the international community to stand with the Iranian people and condemn the suppression and killing of demonstrators, recognize the right of the Iranian people to overthrow the religious dictatorship, and to achieve democracy and freedom.” He also called on the Italian government to adopt a firm policy against the Iranian regime.
