Home News Human Rights Day 3 of the Anglo-Iranian hunger strike outside Downing Street in London

Day 3 of the Anglo-Iranian hunger strike outside Downing Street in London

The campaigners have called on the UK government and its Western allies to

categorically condemn these acts. The strike takes place just over a year after a number of UK MPs from various parties and the Middle East experts came together to take part in a parliamentary conference at Westminster Hall in the House of Commons. During the conference, they expressed their concern about the state of democracy and freedom in Iran. The committee was organised by the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom (BPCIF).

The activists highlighted the fact that these executions took place on the anniversary of the 1988 state-induced executions in Iran, where thousands of political prisoners were tortured and killed without a fair trial. Many campaigners have concerns that a similar execution may emerge again, under the presidency of Hassan Rouhani. 

Hossein Abedini, a spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, told in an interview with Metro newspaper that “The situation in Gohardasht and other parts of Iran has really worsened… There is a lot of concern about the brutal hangings and torture.” He stressed the importance for recognising the 1988 acts as crimes against humanity and calls for measures to be introduced to prevent executions and torture happening in Iran right now.

Shahram Ahmadi, one of the victims of the recent executions, who endured 33 months of torture before he was hanged, wrote on July 5, 2016: “I hope that I am tried like a human being, like an accused, in a just court.” As well as calling on the UK government to take action, the hunger strike activists are also calling on the UN Security Council and UN Human Rights Council to work together to create a just court of an international scale, which would prosecute those responsible for the death of Ahmadi and many, many others.

 

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