Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, October 8, 2020—On Thursday, dozens of German MPs and dignitaries took part in a rally in Berlin, which was also joined by many online, discussing the Iranian regime’s ongoing use of the death penalty and calling on Europe to take meaningful action on this dire matter.
The event was hosted by the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in which participants strongly condemned the mullahs’ gross human rights violations. The dignitaries also voiced their expectations from the European Union to stand alongside the Iranian people by bringing an end to its failed appeasement policy and supporting Iran’s democratic opposition movement, the NCRI, in its decades-long efforts aiming to establish freedom, democracy and human rights in Iran.
NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi was the keynote speaker of the event.
Mrs. Rajavi underlined that the record of this regime is entwined with executions, hangings and bloodshed. “All of the regime’s internal factions –the so-called reformists and principlists—are complicit in all these crimes,” she said.
Reminding the World Day Against the Death Penalty, which will be marked on October 10, Madam Rajavi reiterated that the world community must review its policy towards the mullahs’ regime. “The embarrassing question posed to the world’s powers and governments is why they are not taking any action towards the ocean of blood flowing in Iran,” she said.
Madam Rajavi reiterated the demands of the Iranian people from the international community. “Form an international fact-finding mission; examine the ample documents, footages and evidence of these crimes, particularly the 1988 massacre and the November 2019 bloodbath; send the dossier on these major crimes to the UN Security Council. All elements are there for the prosecution of the bloodthirsty mullah at the helm and other leaders of the clerical regime,” she said.
NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi
Other German politicians underlined the responsibility of the international community and their own government for putting human rights at the forefront of their policy toward Iran.
“Human rights is a commitment of any civilized state. The systemic violation of human rights in Iran is not a matter of domestic policy. If the government can’t protect its citizens and their human rights, then other governments have a responsibility to protect their human rights,” said Prof. Norbert Lammert, German Federal Parliament Speaker (2005-2017) and Chairman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
“What we have seen with Navid Afkari must not be repeated under any circumstances. And if the Iranian terrorist regime of the mullahs does not finally turn around and end this practice, then I believe the international community will have to take even tougher measures against the Iranian regime,” Dr. Christoph Ploss, German MP and President of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in Hamburg, said in his speech at the event.
German MP Klaus-Dieter Gröhler said, “Germans must not look away while people are being tortured and executed. People of Iran have the right to live in freedom and a democratic future.”
Other speakers highlighted the role of the Iranian Resistance and to potential for change in Iran.
“It’s so important to repeat today the very important part of Madam Rajavi’s program for the new Iran, which is stated in the ten-point-plan, that there is a strong opposition against the death penalty,” Michał Kamiński, Polish MP and former Chair of the ECR group in the European Parliament, said in his speech, and added that both the mullahs’ and the Shah regime used executions as a means to hold on to power.
Hermann-Josef Scharf, Vice President of the Christian Democrat Party in the Saarland State Assembly, praised the role of the NCRI and MEK in leading the fight for freedom in Iran and said, “This is a democratic and responsible alternative to the current regime in Iran. They want a republic based on democracy, free elections, equality of men and women. Madam Rajavi is the living example of tolerant Islam and freedom for all Iranians.”
“Those who try to pretend there is no alternative to Iran are liars. There is a solution: It is you, the people here. You are a solution for the future of Iran and I support you,” Leo Dautzenberg, former member of the German Bundestag, said.
