NCRI – The following is the English translation of a letter of protest by political prisoners in the notorious Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, north-west of Tehran, regarding Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s visit to Iran:
Honorable Prime Minster of Italy
On the verge of your visit to our occupied homeland, we political prisoners that have been enchained in the mullahs’ dreaded dungeons for years bring your attention to the colossal crimes of this regime in our dear country as well as in the region and the world. Of course we doubt that you might not be aware of these villainous activities, but we would like to once again inform you of a small segment of these innumerable crimes:
From the outset of the establishment of this regime and the spread of its dominion over this territory, in addition to economic pressures and usurpation of people’s wealth and selling off the oil and riches of this nation, this regime has resorted to flogging, torture, execution in the most abhorrent manner, stoning to death, and splashing of acid on women and girls for mal-veiling to respond to protests from any strata and class of the society, including even those close to the ruling clique who want a bigger share of the power.
It suffices to take a brief look at the resolutions adopted by the Human Rights Council and the UN Third Committee or statements by human rights organizations and institutions. The repression of journalists, intellectuals, and ethnic and religious minorities is quite ordinary for this regime that had spent billions of dollars of the nations’ wealth on its anti-patriotic [Iran-Iraq] war and then set on to gain dominion over the region by building the nuclear bomb and ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads.
It has also resorted to financial and military support for the terrorist groups that it itself nurtured in order to intervene and pave the way for its dominion over the region and the world. Internally, it spread the use of narcotics among the youth and teenagers to rein in any climate for dissent.
The examples we gave provides a gateway to the mindset and ideology of this antihuman regime. We do not expect anything else from this regime since this is its soul. However, the painful and unforgivable part is the appeasement of this regime by western countries, including the Italian government; countries that do not mind misfortune if it is for their neighbors. In their own countries they are a hundred percent committed to human rights, but when it comes to the countries under the dominion of fascists, they suddenly have no commitment because of the oil and dollars. To the contrary, they encourage the fascists by inking colonialist deals, paying visits, and by shaking their bloody hands.
We therefore declare to you that shaking the hands of the mullahs and sealing contracts with them will surely blemish your reputation.
We are not calling on you to refer to the rights of us prisoners or the Iranian nation to save face since both you and the regime are utterly aware that the era of such repugnant face-saving measures are over.
We therefore strongly condemn your decision to set on this trip and we urge you not to visit Iran under tyranny which will tarnish the history of the relations between our two nations by this act which is your personal decision.
Political prisoners of Gohardasht Prison
CC:
– Italian Prime Ministry Office in Rome
– Italian Foreign Ministry
– Italian Embassy in Tehran