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Head of the Guardian Council demands the execution of Mojahedin prisoners |
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Tuesday, 19 April 2005 |
In Tehran's Friday prayers sermon Jannati demands the execution of Mojahedin political prisoners
Mullah Ahmad Jannati, head of the clerical regime’s Guardian Council,
demanded in today's Friday prayers sermon the speedy implementation of
execution sentences handed down to political prisoners, in particular
members of the People's Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI).
While warning of the Mojahedin's "seditious actions and plans to
overthrow the government," he said, "Some of them have full judicial
cases against them to the extent that no lawyer could defend them, and
any judge would hand down a death sentence to them. Some of them have
already been sentenced, and their sentences upheld during appeals."
Jannati's remarks that "no lawyer could defend them, and any judge
would hand down a death sentence to them" echo Khomeini's fatwa
regarding members and sympathizers of the PMOI. The fatwa stated that
all members and sympathizers of the PMOI should automatically be
sentenced to execution. Mullah Mohammad Yazdi, the former head of the
judiciary, announced that this fatwa defined the judiciary's approach
to PMOI members and supporters.
The call for execution and brutal suppression, coming a day after a
National Convention of Iranians-Americans in the U.S. took place in
support of the Iranian Resistance, indicates the ruling religious
dictatorship's fear of the resistance's progress.
State-run media, including state-radio and television, have reacted
sharply over the past week to the call in the U.S. Congress for the
removal of the PMOI from the list of terrorist organization.
In a commentary on Monday, Tehran radio said, "To remove the [PMOI]
from the list of terrorist organizations, the U.S. State Department
first needs to make preparations ... It is trying to bring in the
[Mojahedin] to use them as part of a political conspiracy, against the
Islamic Republic."
The Iranian Resistance calls on international human rights authorities
and organizations to protest against the death threats against members
and sympathizers of the Mojahedin from the clerical regime's official
tribunes, and urges them to intervene immediately to save the lives of
political prisoners in Iran.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 15, 2005 |