MEP Gérard Deprez chair of the Frienes of a Free Iran ( FOFI) in European Parliament delivered the following speech concerning the critical violation of human rights in Iran in a meeting at Strasbourg on September 13, 2017.
Dear Colleagues, Thank you for coming to the meeting of Friends of a Free Iran in Strasbourg.
The situation in Iran is a very big concern for us. In July we had 101 recorded executions. Amnesty has published a comprehensive report on Iran in August and has strongly condemned Rouhani’s government for human rights violations.
There are several political prisoners who are currently on hunger strike in Gohardasht prison. I made several press releases in their support during August on our behalf. We are very worried about them as they are under a lot pf pressure by the regime.
You know that Rouhani began his second term as President. He again became president after a fake election, where there were no opposition candidates. During his four years in office, Iran became the number one state-executioner in the world per capita. He has defended death penalty as a divine law (God’s law).
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He replaced his justice minister who was member of the death committee in Tehran during the 1988 massacre with another murderer who was member of the death committee in south of Iran. This man has also been in the black list of the EU for human rights violations.
We are also aware about the campaign to seek justice for the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, mostly from the main opposition PMOI. This international campaign began by the opposition leader, madam Maryam Rajavi, and has now spread to all over Iran which has made the regime very nervous. I wish to thank Mrs Rajavi for this important campaign.
The most important development about the 1988 massacre was the publication of a report by the United Nations special Rapporteur on Iran, Mrs Asma Jahangiri. In this report she confirms that thousands were hanged in 1988. She refers to mass graves and she calls for an independent investigation. So we support the call by the UN Rapporteur for a full, independent investigation, so those criminals who were responsible for that crime against humanity would be brought to justice. This should be the responsibility of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
I should tell you that we are very disappointed of Mrs Mogherini for her silence about the 1988 massacre and generally for her silence about repression of women and human rights violations in Iran. This silence by our EU High Representative only encourages the mullahs to continue their crimes in Iran. This is very bad for the reputation of Europe. Instead of putting human rights as her priority, she seems to be an advocate for improving relations with Iran.
As I have said before, we in the European Parliament, who are elected representatives of the people of Europe, we must defend European values which are democracy, human rights, women rights, separation of religion and state.
But I think the least we can do is to urge our European governments and the EU, to condition relations with Islamic Republic of Iran, to a suspension of executions and a clear progress on human rights.
Thank you.
