The statement read: “The country has maintained the highest number of executions in the world per capita during the presidency of the so-called “moderate” Hassan Rouhani. According to Amnesty International’s Global Report on the Death Penalty, more than half of all recorded executions in 2017 took place in Iran. It is also the leading executioner of underage offenders.”
The MEPs, which include four Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament and 14 Committee and Delegation Chairs, acknowledge that the major uprising by the Iranian people that began in December has shaken the Regime badly. The mullahs, unable to crush the domestic protests that are led by the opposition, are using terror attacks against the Iranian opposition in Europe and the US; something thankfully prevented by the relevant authorities in time.
Regarding the attempted bombing of the National Council of Resistance of Iran’s Free Iran gathering in Paris on June 30, France has officially sanctioned Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence for its role and an Iranian diplomat arrested in Germany is now facing trial in Belgium.
French ministers said: “This extremely serious act, which was intended to take place on our soil, cannot go without a response”.
While Denmark recalled its Iranian ambassador in October, over a foiled assassination plot targeting Iranian dissidents living in Denmark that led to the arrest of an Iranian agent in Norway.
The MEPs criticised the current lack of EU response to the human rights violations in Iran and terror plots in Europe, calling it “unacceptable” and affirmed that “we must hold the Iranian regime accountable for its terror plots and expel Iranian Intelligence Ministry operatives from Europe”.
They also urged Albania, which is currently home to several thousand Iranian opposition refugees, not to allow “Iranian agents” to enter the country after an Iranian bomb plot was foiled near Tirana in March.
MEP Gérard Deprez, chair of Friends of a Free Iran – an informal intergroup with a large following in the European Parliament – stressed: “Human rights in Iran cannot be compromised or marginalised on the excuse of political considerations, trade or the nuclear deal. Any expansion of political and economic relations with Iran must be conditional to a clear progress on human rights, women’s rights and a halt to executions.”
