NCRI, 31 December 2010 – Two daughters, whose father was executed on Tuesday, have written moving letters in memory of their father.
Mr. Ali Saremi, 62, was imprisoned by the clerical regime for visiting his son, Akbar, in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, where 3,400 opposition members reside. In a barbaric act on Tuesday, the mullahs executed Mr. Saremi, who had spent a total of 24 years in prison.
According to Amnesty International, six others are sentenced to death by the Iranian regime for visiting family members in Camp Ashraf, home to members of the main opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
In their emotional letters this week, after the execution of their father, Leila and Zeinab Saremi, decried the execution of their father.
Excerpts of both letters are as follows:
Letter by Zeinab Saremi, daughter of executed political prisoner Ali Saremi:
I write these words for the proud spirit of my father and hope that he can hear them!
My dear father,
I hope I could know if you felt our presence outside the walls of Evin [on the day of execution]! We were shivering on that cold winter day while agents of the State Security Forces were keeping themselves warm in their cars.
Dad, I had come to see your beautiful face. I had come in the hopes that they would make myself, mother, and sisters suffer instead of you, so that you could stay and defend my homeland!
About twenty minutes later, two ambulances arrived just before the dawn prayer. They wanted to pass through Evin’s steel gate. The inscription on one of them said “Inspection.” While they were waiting outside the door, shouts of “Hossein, Hossein, Hossein” [the third revered Shiite imam] broke the winter silence at Evin, blending with the call for dawn prayer. The sky was full of stars and the moon shone bright!
I was frozen in time, overcome with an emotion that is indescribable. We all felt the hair stand on the back of our necks. After the morning prayer call, the agents left and we stayed.
Dad, I felt you fly away and leave us behind! But, we didn’t just stand there. Look at your foot prints that are now filled with our shoes! The world has come and is following in your footsteps, even with broken heads!
Dad, I love you with all my heart. I love you. I love you.
Letter by Leila Saremi, daughter of executed political prisoner Ali Saremi:
Dear God, when my day comes to see you, I will confide in you all the bitter realities of life on Earth. And I will let you know how painful it feels to be deprived of a father whose being was my most prized possession on Earth.
I will tell you how grueling, painful and unbearable it is to live in a land devoid of freedom. And, if you decided to believe the truth of what I am telling you, then may you give me the strength to remove all this cruelty from the Earth and pursue the best of what life has to offer.
Dear God, when darkness has cast its shadow over a country, how will you, as the source of all being, bring light to this land? And, how will you relieve the people of the pains of forcibly living in such circumstances?
Will you ever be able to bring back a life that has been shattered?
I hope that the execution of my dear father will serve as a wakeup call for those who are still asleep, those who are ruling over us and are making decisions for us and our children, those who have silenced their conscience. Without oppressors, there would be no oppressed people!
[Leila’s child, Farzad, who was with her on that fateful day] was crying and shouting. I wanted to hug him and comfort him, but I felt like I was losing control over him, and he wanted to vent his innermost pains with all his might. Then, in excruciating silence, Farzad stared at a distant point. I held his hands to comfort him and to share his pain. Suddenly, I felt how much he has grown up! His hands had become larger and grown more powerful!
