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Execution of Iranian political prisoner condemned

Press Release

The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom condemns in the strongest terms the execution on Tuesday of veteran political prisoner Ali Saremi by the Iranian theocracy. Mr Saremi’s sole crime was to openly and actively support his son – a member of the opposition People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) – in Camp Ashraf in Iraq, having visited him in the camp once in recent years.

Iran’s justice system is a travesty and makes a mockery of the rule of law. Innocent men, women and children are hanged both secretly and in public in a futile bid to contain the society’s simmering tensions and the will of millions of young Iranians to achieve regime change.
 
Mr Saremi, 63, was hanged in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison after 24 years of incarceration under the mullahs’ regime and the Shah’s rule. He was last arrested in August 2007 during a ceremony marking the anniversary of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners, and he was sentenced to death following the Ashura uprising in December 2009.
 
Mr Saremi’s execution took place while the regime has pressed the Iraqi government to crack down on Camp Ashraf residents. Residents at the camp hospital came under armed attack on Sunday, with dozens badly injured.
 
The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom is seriously concerned about the safety of Mr Saremi’s relatives following the arrest of his sister, wife, daughter and others on Tuesday. The Committee calls on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to make urgent representations to ensure the immediate release of Mr Saremi’s supporters and a halt to the execution of other political prisoners, in particular those at urgent risk due to their ties with members of the opposition PMOI in Camp Ashraf.

British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom
28 December 2010