British MPs have condemned the execution of Iranian political prisoner Gholamreza Khosravi at the hands of the ‘medieval’ regime and demanded tough new action against Iran for severe human rights violations.
The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom said it was ‘utterly disturbed and appalled’ that Mr Khosravi, of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran(PMOI/MEK), had been hanged.
Mr Khosravi, a political prisoner in the 1980’s, was arrested in Iran’s southern Province of Kerman in 2008 intelligence ministry agents on charges of providing financial support to Simay Azadi, a TV station outside Iran, and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment.
He spent years in solitary confinement and was tortured in a failed bid to force him into a making a self¬incriminating confession on live TV. After he refused he was charged in April 2012 with ‘enmity against God’ (moharebeh) for his ties to the PMOI (MEK) and sentenced to death.
A statement by British lawmakers said:: Facing growing regional and international isolation and a restive population as well as a devastated economy, the Iranian regime has resorted to extreme measures to suppress any hint of dissent at home, in particular towards the PMOI (MEK), the only viable organized opposition.
“The Iranian authorities continue with the extensive use of the death penalty under their so¬called moderate president Rouhani.
“The execution of Gholamreza Khosravi in spite of several Urgent Actions by Amnesty International and others is an alarming sign which drives us sharply to the point that taking punitive actions by the UN Security Council and sanctioning this medieval regime for human rights violations is a must.
“The International community has the duty to halt the executions and the barbaric conduct against Iranian political prisoners. This is a duty which cannot and should not be ignored, and overshadowed by nuclear talks or for any other diplomatic considerations. In our relations with Iran, human rights and speaking out for it must be our first concern regardless of the ongoing negotiations.
“In condemning the execution of Gholamreza Khosravi in strongest terms, the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom vehemently calls on the UK government as a permanent member of the UN Security Council as well as on the UN Secretary General, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran and the EU authorities to take up Iran’s human rights dossier for serious consideration and effective punitive actions to be taken.
“We encourage all international human rights organisations to stress this issue, to ensure that necessary action will not be delayed, and to ensure that the Iranian regime will not get away with such crimes due to naïve hopes in the West on Rouhani for change.
“Rouhani is exposed as a practitioner of extreme repression. It is time for all the high-ranking Iranian authorities to be held accountable and indicted internationally for more than three decades of systematic human rights violations in Iran.”
