Paulo Casaca former MEP from Portugal and founder of the international co-operation association in Brussels ARCHumankind, “Alliance to Renew Co-operation among Humankind”, addressed a webinar by European lawmakers on October 7, 2020, on the human rights situation in Iran.
Online Conference held under title, “Iran’s Ongoing Crimes Against Humanity, EU’s political and moral obligations”. The online event was on October 7, 2020. Dozens of members of the European Parliament attended and spoke at the conference.
MEPs made their remarks in order to condemn the horrific human rights violations witnessed on a daily basis across Iran. In addition, MEPs called on the European Union to fulfill its moral and political obligations in the face of human rights violations in Iran. They called for a firm policy by the European Union against the mullah regime in Iran. Also, they pointed out, It is high time to stand alongside the Iranian people and support their justified aspirations for a free, democratic, and non-nuclear Iran.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran(NCRI), was the keynote speaker at this conference. Her message welcomed as a democratic solution to Iran’s future. Mrs. Rajavi’s ten-point plan has widespread support from the majority of MEPs for a long time.
Paulo Casaca, former MEP from Portugal and founder of the international co-operation association in Brussels ARCHumankind, “Alliance to Renew Co-operation among Humankind”
Dear Madam President Rajavi, delighted to listen to your assessment of the situation on Iran. As we are about to end our conference, I would like to elaborate a bit on one point that I think is fundamental, one that was raised actually by at least three honorable members of the European Parliament, Benoît Biteau, Javier Zarzalejos, and Petras Austrevicius, which is the nature of the crime committed by the Iranian regime that was in evidence with the so-called execution of Navid Afkari.
It is absolutely clear that the European Parliament and in this regard, the NCRI as well which is one of the 10 points, we are fully against the death penalty in any circumstance. But as it was said before, what we have seen here with Mr. Afkari was not the death penalty, was a state crime, was an execution that did not even follow the procedures set by the Iranian regime.
Actually, this is not the first time. This is not the second. This has been a system that was clearly symbolized by the fatwa of 1988, that ordered the religious Supreme Leader of the time, the late Ayatollah Khomeini, he ordered the murder of all the political prisoners, the vast majority members of the People’s Mojahedin in Iran or other organizations that were political opponents. He ordered their murder. This is according to the Swiss law, clear a genocide.
I am absolutely delighted to see that, although so many years afterwards, the Swiss authorities understood that the murder of Kazem Rajavi is included in this genocide. It was not in 1988, it was two years after, but it comes out of the same fatwa, it came out of the same regime.
The question is, dear members of the European Parliament, that warriors, the genocidal leaders of Rwanda that made this horrendous massacre are not in power, some of them brought to trial, the same happened in Cambodia, or even those responsible for the genocide in 1970 in Bangladesh, this has not been the case in Iran.
No one that is truly friend of human rights can rest in peace, can be in peace with himself up to the moment that this genocide is brought to justice. This is a must, that we, when we were in the European Parliament, tried our best to accomplish. But, seeing so many European parliamentarians, I am so glad to see that the trouble is going on, and it can never stop. This criminal regime, the responsible people have to be brought to trial for genocide. Thank you.
