The Human Rights Committee of the Italian Senate held a special hearing on July 31, 2025, hosting Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). In the session, chaired by Senator Stefania Pucciarelli, Mrs. Rajavi testified on the escalating human rights crisis in Iran, marked by a surge in executions and brutal repression, and to call for decisive international action to hold the clerical regime accountable. The hearing was attended by prominent Italian lawmakers who voiced their solidarity with the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom and democracy.
In her comprehensive testimony, Mrs. Rajavi painted a grim picture of the current situation inside Iran, where the regime is increasingly resorting to violence to cling to power. She began by paying homage to Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, two members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) executed just days earlier after three years of torture, noting their steadfast refusal to surrender. Highlighting the scale of the crisis, she revealed that in the year since Masoud Pezeshkian assumed the presidency, the regime has carried out approximately 1,500 executions. This intensification of repression, she argued, is a sign of the regime’s desperation as it nears its downfall.
Attended the Italian Senate Human Rights Committee hearing and presented a report on the clerical regime’s widespread and severe human rights violations in Iran.
The hearing was officially broadcast live on the Senate’s website.
The Committee Chair emphasized after the hearing:… pic.twitter.com/UhQPpTCCe6— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) August 4, 2025
Mrs. Rajavi stressed that the regime’s survival strategy hinges on both domestic oppression and foreign belligerence, linking its human rights abuses to its export of terrorism and pursuit of nuclear weapons. She issued a direct call for European governments to take a firm stance, stating, “European governments must make their relations with this regime conditional on a halt to executions.” She further demanded international accountability for the masterminds of decades of atrocities, including the 1988 massacre of political prisoners and the violent crackdowns on recent uprisings. “The first person who must be held to account is Ali Khamenei, the regime’s Supreme Leader. He must face justice,” Mrs. Rajavi declared, urging Italy, a pioneer in the abolition of the death penalty, to lead this effort.
Senator Stefania Pucciarelli, Chair of the Human Rights Committee
The hearing featured powerful statements from Italian senators, who condemned the Iranian regime’s actions and affirmed their unwavering support for the cause of human rights and democracy in Iran.
In her opening remarks, Senator Stefania Pucciarelli welcomed Mrs. Rajavi and her delegation, emphasizing the committee’s long-standing focus on the human rights situation in Iran.
Senator Pucciarelli reaffirmed that the “respect for human rights in Iran is among the priorities of this commission.”
Senator Pucciarelli reiterated her solidarity with the Iranian people and particularly with Iranian women, “who are suffering due to a regime and have been suffering for too long.” She assured the delegation of Italy’s active commitment, stating, “also through the work of this commission, we seek to advance the protection of human rights wherever they are violated. As you rightly pointed out, in this case, it is life itself that is violated, therefore, [I express] maximum support to all of you.”
In Commissione #DirittiUmani, incontro con @Maryam_Rajavi @iran_policy Diretta → https://t.co/JxT8biQCYr pic.twitter.com/7o6Eh8KJrX
— Senato Repubblica (@SenatoStampa) July 31, 2025
Senator Gisella Naturale
Senator Gisella Naturale of the 5 Star Movement echoed the sentiment of support, thanking Mrs. Rajavi for her powerful presentation, which she said made the regime’s atrocities feel “almost physical.” She affirmed her party’s and the committee’s commitment to the Iranian people’s fight for universal human rights, which she described as a “difficult battle.”
Senator Naturale pledged to help amplify the voice of the Iranian Resistance on the world stage. “We continue to offer our support, our desire to give you a voice, because it is necessary to expand your commitment and your action in Iran, which is fundamental there, on Iranian territory,” she stated. Acknowledging Mrs. Rajavi’s call for global action, she added, “As you have rightly requested, an international initiative [is needed] against all forms of dictatorship, including that in Iran. And we, as the Human Rights Commission and not only, but also as senators, and I as a representative of the 5 Star Movement, [reaffirm] all our constant closeness and support, and we will continue this way.”
Senator Giulio Terzi, former Italian Foreign Minister
Senator Giulio Terzi delivered an in-depth analysis of the geopolitical landscape, framing the Iranian Resistance’s struggle as central to the global fight for freedom. He thanked Mrs. Rajavi for the “very important event” and underscored the necessity of “increasing and ever stronger international support” from free and democratic nations
Senator Terzi praised the NCRI for its clear democratic vision, describing it as “a very broad, vast, rooted resistance; a resistance that does not want to restore an oppressive monarchy, but rather wants to bring about a new Iran of democracy and certainty, not just of hope.” He asserted that this movement “is gaining, on a rising wave, consensus and success.”
Repression is the regime’s principal tool for survival. Executions, torture, the systemic oppression of women and their deprivation of even the most basic rights, the double persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, and the denial of fundamental freedoms—including freedom… pic.twitter.com/Z9TQYDg4us
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) August 5, 2025
Drawing a historical parallel, Senator Terzi recalled the 1988 massacre, noting that while the regime’s instability then led to extreme violence, the current conditions are “completely different.” He argued that unlike in 1988, the regime today is fundamentally weaker and “no longer capable of defending itself.” He pointed to the diminishing power of its terrorist proxies, describing them as “losing arms, losing tentacles, and almost completely cut off from that horrendous genocidal octopus that is in Tehran.”
Furthermore, Senator Terzi credited the Iranian Resistance for its critical role over the past two decades in exposing the regime’s clandestine nuclear program. “A good part of the world, I would say the free world, has realized in the last 20 years how much it owes to the Iranian Resistance for the discovery, for the denunciation, for the evidence that has been brought since 2002 to today on a mad, illegal, and completely unacceptable military nuclear program by Iran,” he stated.
In his concluding remarks, Senator Terzi offered a message of determined optimism. He argued that despite the arduous challenges, the path forward is clearer and more secure than in the past. “We are on a safer path,” he affirmed. “We are in sight of a different Iran, in a situation that I believe is much more advanced than what we have experienced in recent years.” He concluded by stressing the need for “great political determination from Europe and from free peoples” to support the cause of a free Iran, emphasizing that such support is ultimately “for the benefit of all, in our own interest.”