1820 – Iranian youths are on the stage to support the PMOI (MEK) and the Iranian Resistance for freedom and democracy in their homeland. They vow to stand up for human rights in Iran.
Jean-Pierre Brard, former member of France’s National Assembly and former French Mayor: We must not capitulate to dictators such as the Iranian regime. We must support the movement for freedom and democracy in Iran.
Mark Williams, Member of Parliament from the United Kingdom: I condemn the death penalty in Iran. Iran has the highest number of executions in the world per capita. Since Rouhani took office human rights have gotten worse in Iran and there have been rocket attacks on Camp Liberty. The PMOI is the legitimate voice of the Iranian people. It is time for the international community to support the Iranian Resistance.
From Albania, Ermonela Felaj, government’s liaison minister with the parliament; Edmond Spaho, Vice President of the Parliament; and a number of parliamentary deputies including Mmes. Evis Kushi and Blerina Gjylameti and Messrs. Tahir Muhedini, Arben Cuko, Musa Ulqini and Bedri Hoxha address the conference on behalf of a large political delegation and show their support for the cause of freedom in Iran.
David Jones, Member of Parliament from the United Kingdom and former Secretary of States for Wales in the cabinet of Prime Minister David Cameron: My Parliamentary colleagues and I condemn the death penalty in Iran. Hassan Rouhani’s government has carried out some 2000 executions in past the past two years in Iran. There is a policy of death in Iran. We urge support for Mrs. Maryam Rajavi’s 10-point platform for a future free Iran.
Former United Nations human rights chief in Iraq, Dr Tahar Boumedra: “In Iran the death penalty is left to the determination of judges who have limited knowledge. … The reality about the fundamentalist regime in Iran is that it has deprived the civil society which aspires for freedom and justice to reach their hopes and their standards. The clerical leadership poses a serious challenge to the establishment of democracy in Iran. The movement championed by the NCRI and the PMOI has called for human rights and human dignity. The NCRI president-elect’s 10-point plan opens a gateway to democracy. It calls for abolition of the death penalty, gender equality, and the rule of law and justice as the foundation of the state.”
1710 – Rama Yade, former French Minister for Human Rights, said the flaw in the July 14 nuclear deal between the major world powers and the Iranian regime is that it ignores the human rights abuses by the regime. Turning a blind eye to the human rights violations in Iran only encourages the regime to commit more such abuses, she said.
Farzad Madadzadeh, former Iranian political prisoner, who escaped Iran’s two months ago:
“My name is Farzad Madadzadeh. I have recently come from Iran. I am 30 years old and I have spent five years in regime’s prisons.
I got to know the Resistance and the PMOI (MEK) twelve years ago when I saw the picture of Maryam Rajavi in the Asia Daily and then I watched the programs of Simaye Azadi, the resistance’s television.
After I learned about the PMOI, my path in life was drastically changed. The suffering of people concerned me and fighting this criminal regime and ending this suffering became my goal.
I was arrested in 2008 and I was condemned to five years in prison in Evin and Gohardasht.
When I was arrested, they took me directly to the dreaded 209 ward and I was locked up in solitary confinement twice for a total of six months.
The solitary confinement is a place that you hear nothing but the gong of death and the regime uses it to break the will of the prisoner. Just in this condition, the henchman demands that you appear before television and to say lies about your beliefs.
The greatest lesson that I learned in the solitary confinement was that you have to fight every second of it and this is the secret to the victory of the prisoner.
After the hard time I spent incommunicado, they removed me from Ward 209. I was first transferred to the general ward in Evin and then to Gohardasht prison in the city of Karaj.
In Evin and Gohardasht I was in the same cell as heroic martyrs Ali Saremi, Farzad Kamangar, Farhad Vakeily, Jafar Kazemi, Mohammadali Haj Aghaii, Masour Radpour, Mohsen Dogmechi and Shahrokh Zamani.
The memory of those martyrs is with me all the time.
The day I was freed from Gohardasht prison, when I was bidding farewell to my cellmates, I pledged to be their voice who have been wronged, as well as the voice of the Iranian people. So, I quickly traveled the distance from Gohardasht prison to the resistance bases for liberty.
What the suffering people of Iran and the political prisoners are saying to the international community is this:
It is scarcely enough to just condemn this regime in words. Bring the mullahs to the international courts for their crimes, especially the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners and their daily and incessant executions.”
Paria Kohandel, young Iranian political activist who is daughter of political prisoner Saleh Kohandel and who escaped the sufferings and torments in Iran only very recently, told the event:
“Greetings to my dear sister Maryam and all you dear friends,
Greetings to the fighters in Liberty and all my compatriots that hear my voice,
My name is Paria Kohandel and I left Iran only a few months ago.
My father is political prisoner Saleh Kohandel who is imprisoned in the dreaded Gohardasht prison.
On April 19, 2011, my dear uncle Akbar and my beloved aunt Mahdieh were martyred in an attack by Maliki’s paid hands.
My dear sister Maryam, I bring you many greetings and hails.
The greetings of thousands of political prisoner in Iran prisons;
The cries of mothers whose tears rains down on the floors of prisons;
The greetings of the work children with calloused hands who are waiting to breathe the clean air that you represent; the air of liberty and emancipation;
The greetings of the trampled girls in the pus of mullahs’ ruled society;
The greetings of those who kiss the noose in Gohardasht, Evin and Kahrizak prisons.
My greetings have passed through the barbed wires of Gohardasht, the thick walls of Evin, and the storehouses of Qarchak;
The prisons that during my childhood I used to run in their dusty visitors’ halls.…
A few months ago, exactly 20 days before the entrance test for universities, I left Iran.
I said to myself that Paria you now can have anything that you ever wanted that was forbidden in Iran. All your dreams and your colorful wishes; to ride a motorcycle that was my biggest dream, to exercise Parkour and gymnastics, and to study my favorite field which is physics.
However, what I had left behind in Iran would not let go of me. I found myself in a dilemma: should I follow my dreams or should I choose the path of resistance to bring into being the dreams of all the children that are captive in Iran, such as the dreams of my dear friend and other girls like her?
…
I understood that I cannot just think about my own dreams. My colorful dreams are just a small part of my life. I owe it to my family, to the prisoners, to my martyred uncles, and ultimately to my struggling father; because I am free now.
When the Iranian girls have so many dreams that look so far away, to pursue my own dreams would be selfish. And that was how I forwent my small interests, just like thousands of Ashrafis.
My big dream is to see the happiness of children so that they never have to pass through the tunnel of Gohardasht.
To make true the dream of girl petty sellers or the small boys that sell omens in our neighborhood.
…
Here today, in front of everyone, I pledge to travel the path of my martyred aunt and uncle and to bring about the world of love to everyone, without any expectations for myself.
Now that I am among all of you who work for freedom, I can hear the echo of my father’s call who said: Paria! I have drunk the pure wine that you have not even smelled!
From here, I say to all those resistive prisoners that I used to see every week from behind the cabin windows that I have learned from all of you that perseverance and resistance is something that no one can take away from you.”
1630 – Addressing the people of Iran, Pumla Makaziwe “Maki” Mandela, daughter of Nelson Mandela, said: “Do not lose hope. Stay with hope and resilience… and you will succeed in your fight eventually against evil.” Addressing the President elect of the NCRI, Dr. Maki Mandela described Mrs. Rajavi as “a woman who has so much courage and resilience” … “Do not stop what you are doing.”
1620 – Mr. Henri Leclerc, prominent French human rights lawyer, takes the parole in defense of the rights of the Iranian people to resist against the mullahs’ regime.
1615 – Maryam Rajavi: “Western governments expand their political and business relations with the religious fascism ruling Iran as if this catastrophe is merely a domestic issue. Ironically, such relations are the worst form of interference in the internal affairs of Iran, of course, in the interest of the mullahs.
Overlooking the Iranian people’s human rights and freedoms is the basic cause of the failure western policy not only on Iran but also on the entire region which has become victim of export of fundamentalism, repression and terrorism by Iran’s ruling religious dictatorship.
Overlooking the Iranian people’s human rights and freedoms is the basic cause of failure of the West’s policy on Iran. In the nuclear deal for example, conditioning the agreement on the Iranian people’s human rights was a parameter that could compel the mullahs into a full retreat.
When the mullahs find an open hand in the brutal executions of the nation’s children, they step up their threats to the region and the world.
Therefore, we tell Western governments:
Make all relations with the Iranian regime contingent upon termination of the death penalty.
Pressure the mullahs’ regime to free all political prisoners.
Refer the case of 1988 massacre by this regime to the International Criminal Court.
Respect the Iranian people’s resistance for freedom.
As for the mullahs’ main target of killing and massacre in recent years, namely the PMOI in Camp Liberty, deliver on your promises to protect them.
Specifically, the inhuman siege on Camp Liberty and especially its medical blockade, must be lifted.
Camp Liberty’s dossier and its management must be brought out of the hands of elements affiliated to the Iranian regime.”
1405 – Maryam Rajavi: “I appreciate your presence at this conference and your attention to the human rights crisis in Iran.
On this day, which has been called by the UN, the World Day Against the Death Penalty, I salute the 120,000 souls martyred on the path to freedom and especially the 30,000 political prisoners who were massacred in 1988.
On this day, I have come to beseech the world for help to stop daily executions in my homeland.
Torture and executions must be stopped.
This is the demand of all of Iran’s people.
Now look at the average annual rate of executions during Rouhani’s tenure compared to that of his predecessor. It has been tripled. As Rouhani acknowledged, the regime’s activities for manufacture of weapons have increased five folds. The budget for security and military affairs and export of fundamentalism has considerably increased.”…
Indeed, why does the world remain silent when Iranian political prisoners are tormented to death or hanged?
Why is the world silent when juveniles are executed in Iran?
Why is this barbaric tyranny not pressured to publish at least a complete list of names of those it executes?
Today, a large number of our defenseless countrymen are secretly executed in prisons across the country. Several thousand more are on death row.”
1555 – MARYAM RAJAVI: OUR PLAN IS AN IRAN WITHOUT THE DEATH PENALTY. The bloodletting mullahs have executed more people this year than they did last year.
While a single execution is enough to arouse everyone’s conscience, the shame of world powers is their silence over the situation in Iran especially as they are seeking nuclear talks and agreement, and trade deals. Such commercial calculations over human lives have never been a good investment for anyone.
If Western governments had stood up to the abuse of human rights in Iran, the mullahs could never expand their barbarity to Syria and Iraq.1550: Mrs. Maryam Rajavi is cheered to the podium by supporters of democracy and human rights in Iran.
1540 – Gilbert Mitterrand, son of the late French President François Mitterrand and head of the human rights group France Libertés: We support the movement led by Maryam Rajavi to bring about a future free Iran where the death penalty will be cast into history.
1535 – Mayor Jean-Francois Legaret, the Mayor of Paris’ First District is welcoming participants to the Paris conference on human rights in Iran. He reiterates the support of France’s elected representatives for the 10-point plan of NCRI President-elect Mrs. Rajavi. Mr. Legaret also denounced the upcoming trip to France of the Iranian regime’s President Hassan Rouhani.
1530 – Participants give standing ovation to Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance.
1500 – Britain’s Daily Mail has published a moving interview with two young Iranian political activists who very recently escaped Iran and have given a harrowing account of the suffering and tortures that they have witnessed.
1430 – Human rights and democracy supporters attend exhibition on executions in Iran. The mullahs’ regime has executed more than 120,000 political prisoners in the past 34 years.
1355 – The international conference in Paris on the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, highlighting the surge of executions in Iran and need for urgent action, will begin at 2.30pm Paris time (8.30am EDT). In addition to a live video stream, this page will be continuously updated with highlights from the event. Iranians are starting to gather outside the conference hall in central Paris.
