NCRI – The following is the English translation of a letter of protest by political prisoner Saleh Kohandel, a supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), from the notorious Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran, regarding the visit to Iran by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
Honorable Prime Minister,
We have heard that in a few days you intend to visit Iran with a trade delegation. This is happening while it is evident to even any ordinary or apolitical person that all of the agony in the Middle East – from Syria to Iraq, Yemen, etc. – is caused by the mullahs ruling Iran and thus this is not a hidden fact for your eminence as the head of a great country such as Italy.
However, it seems the aroma of oil and dollars has affected your senses and you are ignorant of the most evident political situation and do not hear the cries of millions of homeless peoples of Syria, Iraq, Yemen, etc. The human rights of the Iranian people and peoples of the region is not important to you. Now that you are pertaining to be unaware of these facts and are dreaming of hefty oil profits, as a political prisoner that has spent more than a decade in the regime’s prisons I would like to inform you that if you do enter our occupied country, any treaties that you sign have nothing to do with the Iranian people and that you are only dealing with the butchers of Iran who have taken 70 million people hostage.
Prime Minister, in Persian culture if someone buys goods from a thief his crime is heavier than the thief himself.
Prime Minister, in what language should the Iranian people tell you that the mullahs ruling Iran do not represent us? It seems the problem is not with the way we say this but with the colonialist world that supports dictators until the last minute; and you are no different. I wish that you could hear the voice of the oppressed instead of the dictators so that in the free Iran of tomorrow you would be well thought of. Have no doubt that the free Iran of tomorrow is not too far off. The history of the Iranian people will open a dark page for you and you will be damned by the Iranian nation.
Prime Minister, the pain we suffer because of your appeasement is so agonizing that we shall no longer make requests to you appeasers but will yell at you and will tell to your people what you have done to us.
Saleh Kohandel, political prisoner in Gorhardasht Prison
CC:
Italian Foreign Ministry
Italian Prime Ministry Office in Rome
Italian Embassy in Iran