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Thursday, 7 May 2009 - Strasbourg OJ edition

Iran: the case of Roxana Saberi
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  Paulo Casaca, author.(PT) Madam President, the first of May, which is a day of celebration for us in the West, unfortunately continues to be a day of struggle in Iran. This year it was marked not only by the usual brutal repression of demonstrations by Iranian workers, but also by the execution of a young woman aged 17, Delara Darabi, who was convicted of a crime, despite everything pointing to the fact that she did not commit this crime.

According to Amnesty International, on the day before her execution, this young woman had told her mother of her plans for the future, in the expectation that the huge campaign for her release would be successful.

Delara Darabi is yet another martyr of religious fanaticism, like so many others whose execution we have denounced in this House.

Human rights organisations have also this week confirmed the information, published on 1 May by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, about the stoning in Lakan prison of a man accused of adultery, and announced the imminent stoning of another man in the province of Gilan, once again belying the supposed Iranian moratorium on this barbaric practice.

As reported by the movement which fights for the abolition of the death penalty, Tire as Mãos de Caim, Iran is the country with the highest number of executions per capita in the world. Just this morning, four people were executed in Evin prison, with another eight having been executed in Taibad prison on 2 May.

The imprisonment of nationals of third countries, such as the American, Roxana Saberi, is also a routine practice in order to blackmail other countries into granting diplomatic concessions.

In this regard, the comment made by the Secretary of Tire as Mãos de Caim, Sergio D’Elia, is extremely pertinent and highlights the most important point: the brutality of the Mullahs’ regime is not only the responsibility of the Iranian fundamentalist regime. European governments are consenting to this through their silence, tolerance and constant desire to appease, and they are succumbing to the Iranian political and commercial blackmail. The Tehran regime is threatening the peace and security of the whole world and, even more clearly, of its own citizens, through acts which have been practised for decades. Instead of taking this into account, Europe is making Iran the solution to the problems of the Middle East, when it is actually the main problem.

On this final occasion that I will speak before the European Parliament, I call on those who will be here at the next sitting not to abandon the Iranians to their jailers and not to abandon the people of the Middle East to the abyss of religious fanaticism.

 
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