conference in Italy: 23 more Iranian officials should be blacklisted by EU
The international Hands of Cain Association urged the European Union blacklist 23 Iranian officials after the group presented their criminal records during a press conference in the Italian Senate on February 13.
The conference in Italy, which was supported by the many Italian politicians in attendance, was held at the same time that the EU added more Iranian officials to its sanctions list.
The event was attended by:
- former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi
- Federico Mollicone, Member of Parliament
- Senator Roberto Rampi, Member of the Senate Commission on Human Rights
- Senator Lucio Malan, a senior member of the Italian Senate
- Laura Harth, Representative of the Italian Nonviolent Radical Party Transnational Transparency at the United Nations
- Mahmoud Hakamian from the National Council of Resistance of Iran’s (NCRI) Italian representative office
At the start of the conferencein Italy, Elisabetta Zamparutti, an official from Hands of Cain who chaired the event, said that everyone appreciated the Albanian government for accepting over 2,500 members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran [PMOI/MEK], a move that angered the regime.
She also noted that, although she was pleased with the EU’s updates to its blacklist of Iranian human rights abuses, the list is incomplete. She called for the following officials to be added to the list:
- Ibrahim Raisi, head of the judiciary
- Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Minister of Communications
- Abbas Salehi, Minister of Culture and Culture and Islamic Guidance
- Mullah Mahmoud Alavi Minister of Intelligence and Security
- Abolfazl Rahmani Fazli, Minister of Interior
- Police Chief Hossein Ashtari
- Basij Force Commander Gholamreza Soleimani
- Ali Shamkhani Secretary of the Supreme Security Council
- Abolhasan Firooz-Abadi a former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces and Khamenei’s military adviser
- Hossain Salami Commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC)
- Ali Fadavi, deputy commander of the IRGC
- Hassan Shahvarpour Commander of the IRGC Wali-e Asr garrison in Khuzestan province
- Mohammad Pakpour Commander of the IRGC’s Land Force
- Gholam Hossein Ghabparvar, former head of the Basij organization
- Mustafa Pourmohammadi, Former Minister of Justice
- Asghar Jahangir, Head of Iran’s Prisons
- Mansour Gholami, Minister of Science Research and Technology
- Mohsen Rezai Member of Expediency Council and Former Commander of the IRGC
- Mohammad Ali Abdollahi Coordinator of the Armed Forces Staff
- Ali Asghar Hejazi Chief of Security for Khamenei’s Office
- Mohsen Qomi, Vice President of International Affairs at Khamenei’s Office
- Ismail Qaani Commander of the Quds Force
Rampi spoke about the regime violating human rights, by cracking down violently on protesters, and endangering the security of other countries through terrorism. While Terzi said that an independent fact-finding mission should be sent by the United Nations to monitor human rights abuses in Iran.
Hakamian agreed with both of these statements and called on “the international community to stand with the Iranian people and condemn the suppression and killing of demonstrators, recognize the right of the Iranian people to overthrow the religious dictatorship, and to achieve democracy and freedom.”
