News - Maryam Rajavi Messages Iran opposition leader hails Iran human rights session at UK House of Commons

Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi

The following is the text of a message by Iranian opposition leader Mrs. Maryam Rajavi , President-elect of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, to a meeting on human rights in Iran at the United Kingdom House of Commons sponsored by the all-party British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom.
Maryam Rajavi’s message to a meeting on human rights in Iran at the UK Parliament
September 15, 2015
We call on Britain, Europe and all the world to stand by human rights, freedom and the Iranian Resistance and respect the Iranian people’s desire for regime change. There is such power and influence in this struggle that the world needs
The British Human Right Session,
The honorable members of the British Houses of Commons and Lords,
Dear friends,
I salute you and appreciate your attention to the issue of Iran and its victimized human rights and freedoms, particularly, the prominent parliamentarians Messrs. David Jones and David Amess, the sponsors of this meeting.
It has been years that human rights and freedoms in Iran have comprised a common struggle for the Resistance movement and for the honorable members of the British Houses of Parliament in the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom.
The people of Iran must have the right to freedom from arbitrary arrests, torture and extrajudicial executions.
They must have the right to enjoy personal freedoms and security and be equal to others before the law. They must have the right to be heard in fair trials before the courts. They must have the right to have their house and private life and their manners of clothing and their movements protected against attacks. They must have the right to freely express their opinions, freely write and read and freely form any gathering they desire. They must have the right to have free elections.
How much longer must the Iranian people only dream of enjoying their most basic rights? How much longer must Iranians give their blood and lives to gain a miniscule part of these rights?
Unfortunately, the issue of human rights and freedoms in Iran were overlooked more than ever in the past two years while the nuclear negotiations and its ultimate agreement were ongoing.
Taking advantage of western governments’ ignorance and irresponsibility, Iran’s ruling mullahs stepped up their suppression and clampdown on freedoms over the past two years. According to Amnesty International, the number of executions in the first half of 2015 amounted to nearly 700 which is highest record of executions in the past quarter of a century. The number of executions in the two years of Rouhani’s tenure has exceeded 2000.
During this period, the record of human rights has deteriorated in all areas. Teachers and workers’ protests are responded to by expulsions from work. The rights and freedoms of lawyers, human rights defenders, web bloggers, reporters, new Christian converts, Bahaii’s, Sunni youths, Kurds, Baluchis and more than anyone, the women and youths of Iran are trampled every day.
In the meantime, the mullahs’ oppressive hand has extended beyond its borders and tightened the siege onCamp Liberty, the seat of Mojahedin members. So far, 27 people have lost their lives due to lack of prompt and timely access to medical treatment.more

EU companies run the risk of providing the tools for oppression in Iran

suppression in Iran by Mullahs

The following is an article written by Julie Lenarz  and Benjami Weinthal in the Independent on Sunday, August 30th, 2015. Julie Lenarz is the Executive Director of the London-based Human Security Centre. Benjamin Weinthal is a Berlin-based fellow for the Foundation for Defence of Democracies

The UK along with the other world powers reached agreement last month with Iran to curb elements of its nuclear programme. With the gold rush mentality infecting Germany, Italy, Austria, France and Switzerland to secure billion dollar deals, their investments are far from risk-free and may create an unseemly backlash.
The Faustian bargain - a feeble nuclear deal in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions - has pushed the vision of a free and democratic Iran into a dim distance. Put simply, a sizable chunk of the estimated $150 billion in sanctions relief will be used to repress Iran’s civilian population. One of the greatest beneficiaries is the hard-line Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with its extensive tentacles in the economic realm wielding control over strategic industries and black market enterprises.
Take the case of Western technology used to execute Iranians. Just last month, the CEO of the Austrian giant crane manufacturer Palfinger described Iran as a “promising market” with great needs, although it has been alleged that at least one Palfinger crane was used in an execution after being resold to Iran.
Iran is currently murdering prisoners at the rate of more than three people per day. 694 executions have been carried out as of mid-July, approaching the total number of executions in all of 2014. Amnesty International has warned that state-sanctioned deaths could top 1,000 by the end of the year.
There is no shortage of evidence of how in the past Western-supplied goods became tools of repression. This is best illustrated by the salient example of the former Finnish-German venture Nokia Siemens Networks, which supplied censorship and surveillance technology to Iran allowing the IRGC to monitor and disrupt mobile and internet usage of pro-democracy activists during uprising against the officially declared victory of Ahmadinejad in 2009.
Iran’s trade with the EU last year totalled €7.6 billion and officials from different member states have already flocked to Tehran to get a piece of the boom-time pie which could grow by 400 per cent by mid-2018. The EU’s biggest trading giants have wasted no time in gaining a head start in the race to win billions of euros’ worth of business.more