Members of the European Parliament called on their states to focus on human rights abuses in a conference held on Tuesday, December 7. The conference, which was held on the eve of the International Human Rights Day on December 10, featured speeches from MEPs, distinguished European politicians, and Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
In her keynote speech, Mrs. Rajavi highlighted the regime’s all-out violence against members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), including the 1988 massacre of more than 30,000 political prisoners in Iran, most of whom were members and supporters of the MEK.
“For several decades now, under the mullahs’ rule in Iran, it has been forbidden to mention the PMOI’s name. The ban is one aspect of the genocide carried out against the PMOI. Last June, [regime supreme leader Ali] Khamenei selected one of the key perpetrators of the 1988 massacre as the regime’s president,” Mrs. Rajavi said and added that the people of Iran launched a call-for-justice movement that calls for the prosecution of Khamenei and regime president Ebrahim Raisi for “committing genocide and crimes against humanity.”
“As far as the international community is concerned, silence and inaction vis-a-vis this brutal crime amounts to appeasing Iran’s ruling murderers,” Mrs. Rajavi warned and called on European leaders to initiate a movement to stand with the people of Iran, the families and survivors of the 30,000 massacred political prisoners in 1988, and Iranian protesters who have been standing up for their rights in Iran’s streets.
“I specifically urge you to adopt a resolution in the European Parliament, which would recognize the 1988 massacre as a genocide and a crime against humanity. I urge you to support the Iranian people’s demand for the international prosecution of Khamenei and Raisi for the massacre of political prisoners in 1988 and the November 2019 killings. I urge you to call on governments of Europe to condition their relations and talks with the clerical regime on ending the arrest of protesters and torture and executions in prisons,” she said.
Addressing EP Conference on the eve of the World #HumanRightsDay
Maryam Rajavi: Protesters in #Iran give meaning to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights#ProsecuteRaisiNow https://t.co/AiPHUhYoh1 pic.twitter.com/o88Whn1GcS— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) December 7, 2021
Javier Zarzalejos, MEP from Spain, Vice Chair of the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation, stressed that Iran’s regime has the most flagrant violations of human rights.
“We have gathered here today to call out the European Union and its Member States to adopt a firm policy on Iran,” Zarzalejos said. “It is necessary to translate words into actions, to recognize the 1988 massacre as genocide and crime against humanity, in addition to urging the international community to call for accountability. The perpetrators of these crimes must be brought to justice.”
“To those who wish to engage with this kind of regime, I would like to remind that 80 percent of Iran’s business is under the control of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), which was responsible for the killing, murders, and mass murders of their own compatriots,” Anna Fotyga, Polish MEP, Foreign Minister (2006-2007), said. “We not only have to condemn but ensure that no one has impunity, including the highest-ranking posts.”
“The human rights situation has degraded significantly in Iran. This is why we must reflect on the situation. I think that we must conduct a real investigation about the forced disappearances and the massacre. We want to use the Global Magnitsky Law to bring human rights violators to justice,” Patrizia Toia, MEP from Italy, said.
LIVE STREAM#1988Massacre, a Crime against Humanity & Genocide
End impunity for #Iran Regime Leaders
EU: Policies & Moral Obligations#StandUp4HumanRightshttps://t.co/ryRrE6YG84— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) December 7, 2021
Other speakers highlighted the role of Raisi in human rights abuses and the need to view relations with the regime through the lens of Raisi’s crimes.
“A man who has the blood of 30,000 political prisoners of the MEK massacred in 1988 on his hands, becomes the president of the country, a president who has not been elected by the people but appointed by the Supreme Leader,” Petri Sarvamaa, Finnish MEP and Vice Chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control, said. “The world community must have reacted to this immediately. The EU must have taken a position and acted according to its Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. However, we did not see that, and I feel our democratic principles are being betrayed.”
Sarvamaa called on EU officials and leaders to side with the Iranian people and The Iranian Resistance.
“The European Parliament could play a key role in this regard. We must let the Resistance Units inside Iran know that we are with them. We appreciate their brave and courageous activities for which they put their lives at risk. History will remember what they are doing for establishing freedom and democracy in their homeland and we in the European Parliament admire them for that,” he said.
.@GiulioTerzi
We are here to express our full trust that the only viable alternative to the Iranian regime is the movement led by @Maryam_Rajavi. The MEK and the ten-point plan of Madam Rajavi is the perfect path to assure freedom for everyone in #Iran.https://t.co/4wZX3qyAUD— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) December 7, 2021
The speakers called for a firm holistic European policy toward Tehran’s threats.
“We must multiply our pressure on the European External Action Service and on EU Member States to change their policy toward Iran’s totalitarian theocracy,” Alejo Vidal Quadras, Former Vice President of the EP, said. “Iran’s clerics have never ceased their promotion of terrorism in the Middle East, their human rights violations inside Iran, and their non-compliance with the terms of the JCPOA. They have never accepted to be accountable for the 1988 massacre of PMOI/MEK members which was decided by Khomeini, one of the worst crimes against humanity since the Second World War. The High Representatives of European politics have insisted on their weak and cowardly approach to dealing with the cruelest dictator of the world. And it has provoked the regime in its terrorist attacks.”
Former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi highlighted the role of the MEK and NCRI in countering the regime’s fundamentalist rule and threats to the world.
“The only viable alternative to the Iranian regime is the movement led by Maryam Rajavi. The MEK and the ten-point plan of Madam Rajavi is the perfect path to assure freedom for every Iranian and to make Iran a country committed to democracy, a non-nuclear country with acceptable working conditions and respect for the environment,” he said.
Struan Stevenson, Former MEP, President of EP Delegation for Relations with Iraq 2009-2014, shed light on the regime’s abuse of the policy of appeasement to impose its will on the international community in nuclear talks.
“The theocratic regime in Iran has a team in Vienna this week again trying to hoodwink the Americans into rejoining the defunct JCPOA nuclear deal under the directions of the elderly and demented supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and their new criminal president Ebrahim Raisi, the so-called butcher, with demands that are impossible for the Biden administration to meet,” he said. “They want the immediate lifting of all sanctions including even those that were directed at their proxy wars in the Middle East which is something Biden politically cannot entertain. They also want a guarantee that no future US administration would ever again withdraw from the deal. Again, that is a guarantee that no president would be able to give. Meanwhile, the mullahs have accelerated their program of enriching uranium now at 60% purity, which is only a step away from weapons grade, because their clear objective is to build a nuclear bomb and their pretext of negotiations in Vienna were only ever a masquerade to hide that reality from the West. So, the JCPOA is dead in the water and Josep Borrell would be well advised to abandon his appeasement policy of this repressive regime and turn his attention instead to providing EU support for the Iranian people who long for freedom and an end to violence.”
.@paulocasaca1
The nuclear negotiations circus means #Iran's genocidal regime wants the international community to give them a measure of legitimacy. Under the name of peace, they are promoting war.#StandUp4HumanRights https://t.co/9iJMsBUvJJ— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) December 7, 2021
Pauolo Casaca, Former MEP, stipulated that a regime led by a mass murderer has no place in the world community.
“This work can never terminate unless we see this criminal regime that is ruling Iran on trial in an international court. There is no alternative to this path,” he said. “It is the duty of the entire international community to pursue all those who are involved in genocide. For those who have nurtured the idea of appeasement, Raisi is a criminal, a butcher. He was personally involved in the genocide. The nuclear negotiations circus means the genocidal regime wants the international community to give them a measure of legitimacy. Under the name of peace, they are promoting war because they are giving impunity to the perpetrators of genocide. The regime is murdering people in Isfahan as they have been doing time and time again. This will only end when the international community becomes serious.”
