Iranians in Paris hold exhibition to expose human rights abuses

Iranians in Paris on Saturday held a protest and photo exhibition to expose and denounce the rapid rise in the rate of executions in Iran under the presidency of Hassan Rouhani and call on European governments to make human rights the focus of their Iran policy. The gathering coincided with the 27th anniversary of the 1988 massacre of Iran’s political prisoners.

Iranian and French supporters of the main opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) organized the human rights display in central Paris to inform the public about the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran.

In the summer of 1988, one month after Ruhollah Khomeini was forced to accept a cease-fire in his eight-year war with Iraq, the Iranian regime’s fundamentalist ruler ordered a mass execution of all political prisoners affiliated with the main opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, PMOI (Mujahedin-e Khalq, MEK).

Following the July 14 Iran nuclear agreement, some European officials have travelled to Tehran in the hope of re-establishing economic ties with the regime.

These officials are failing to pay attention to the dramatic deterioration in the human rights situation and the rapid rise in the rate of executions in Iran, the protesters said.

Watch a short clip from Saturday’s protest in Paris:

Immediately after the nuclear deal was reached, the fundamentalist regime embarked on a new wave of executions, including several cases of group hangings.

At least 44 prisoners, including two women, have been executed in Iran, in some cases in public squares, since July 22.

The protesters in Paris called on EU governments to condition an improvement of relations with Iran on an end to the killing spree and Tehran’s export of terror and fundamentalism.

The protesters also called on the United Nations and the U.S. government to live up to their moral and legal obligations to protect several thousand members of the PMOI (MEK) facing an inhumane siege at Camp Liberty in Iraq.