It has been reported that Matthew Offord, the MP for Hendon, is one of around 200 cross-party MPs and peers that is demanding an international investigation into the appalling state of human rights in Iran.
On 17th November, at a conference in the House of Commons, numerous MPs, British religious leaders and Lords spoke about their concerns about a country where executions are rife. Even women and juvenile offenders are not spared, and executions often take place in public.
The Conservative MP for Hendon, Matthew Offord, was one of the politicians who spoke at the conference. He said he was worried about the United Kingdom’s business relationship with the mullahs’ regime in Iran.
He said: “The current UK policy on pursing business opportunities in Iran in the post-nuclear deal era risks empowering the Revolutionary Guards. This paramilitary arm of the Supreme Leader is the major force in exporting terror out of Iran and suppressing any popular dissent, controlling close to 70 per cent of Iran’s economy.”
Those at the conference urged for an investigation into the 1988 massacre in Iran. Tens of thousands of political prisoners lost their lives when Ayatollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republic’s founder, ordered the execution of political prisoners. Around 30,000 political prisoners died in the space of a few months and were then buried in secret, mass graves. Very worryingly, many of the officials that played a large role back in 1988 are still in positions of major authority today.
The President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, spoke to those at the conference via video message. She said: “The regime preserves its power by these atrocities, even as the anti-government protests spread across the country. If the international community had not remained silent and passive in this regard, letting the criminals evade justice, the wave of executions and repression in Iran could not have continued to date.”
The United Nations and Amnesty International, as well as other international organisations, say that the Iranian regime is responsible for over a thousand executions last year alone.
Amnesty International published a report at the beginning of this year stating that 73 juvenile offenders have been executed since 2005 and that there are currently 160 on death row. The Iranian regime is violating international law and conventions that prohibit the execution of juveniles.
