Maryam Rajavi at UK Parliament: Stop Iran’s Executions Now

Maryam Rajavi: The People of Iran and Political Prisoners Pay the Price of Silence against Executions

Honorable Members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords,
Distinguished friends,
Thank you for your attention to the critical situation in Iran and for your valuable solidarity with the Iranian people’s resistance to establish a democratic republic.
Today, our people and our country are facing very difficult conditions.
On one hand, they are confronted with the many hardships of war, caused by the regime’s nuclear and terrorist projects.
On the other hand, a regime that has become fragile and unstable has intensified its campaign of repression against Iranian society. This includes the arrest of thousands of people, the complete and continued shutdown of the internet, and the execution of young people arrested during the uprising, as well as members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization.

Executions: A Tool to Confront Uprisings in Iran

Since March 19, the ruling clerics have executed 18 political prisoners. Eight of them were members of the PMOI, and the other ten were from among rebellious protesters.
They were tried and sentenced to death in unjust courts that violated minimum judicial standards. They had been deprived of all their rights, subjected to torture, and their families were arrested or faced with threats and abuse.
Their families were denied the right to mourn, and even the bodies of their loved ones were not returned to them.
The victims come from all social backgrounds, ranging from 18-year-olds to men in their sixties.
Yet, the head of the regime’s repressive judiciary, continues to insist on speeding up death sentences and openly admits that, in dealing with the Iranian people, “the judiciary has adopted a fully wartime position.”
The regime is obviously concerned about future uprisings. Through these brutal executions, the regime seeks to terrorize young people and to prevent them from joining the Resistance Units that play a decisive role in organizing and expanding the uprising.
However, the regime is facing a generation that has found its path in resistance and is no longer willing to tolerate the clerics’ repression and dictatorship.
Unfortunately, the European governments, including the United Kingdom, are silent in the face of such brutality. The regime benefits from Europe’s silence on executions and torture in Iran, while what it offers in return is the spread of crisis and insecurity around the world, including acts of terrorism even in the United Kingdom.

Honorable members of ‌‌‌both Houses of the UK Parliament,
The position of the Iranian Resistance can be summarized in the slogan of peace and freedom. The realization of both requires the overthrow of the religious dictatorship.
This objective can be achieved by relying on uprisings of the Iranian people and the organized fighting force of the resistance that form the units of the Liberation Army.
We emphasize once again that the overthrow of the regime is:
First, the only solution to the issue of Iran;
Second, it is achievable; and
Third, it will be carried out by the people and their organized resistance.
The hope of Iranians rests on a resistance that is today engaged in struggle at the heart of Iran’s cities against the clerical dictatorship and its Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
During the uprising in January, the units of the Liberation Army carried out 630 operations against repressive forces in defense of protesters. Five days before the beginning of the recent war, the PMOI targeted the headquarters of Khamenei and other key government centers, which are the most heavily protected locations in the country.
This network of resistance has expanded across Iran’s cities over the past year, and has attracted Iran’s younger generation.
One of the regime’s tools for confronting the uprising and the Resistance is to promote a fake alternative centered on the son of the Shah and remnants of the former dictatorship. This will be against the people of Iran and their uprisings.
The truth is that “neither Shah nor the mullahs” has been the guiding principle of the Iranian people and successive generations over the past 60 years. This is shown in the ongoing struggle of young people and a generation that rejects dictatorship and dependence, against the Revolutionary Guards, intelligence forces, and other agents of repression.

Demands of the Iranian Resistance

Honorable dignitaries,
When Western governments do not speak a single word in response to these daily executions, the Iranian people and political prisoners pay the price.
If European governments adopt their policy without recognizing the need for regime change in Iran, they will in practice be siding with religious fascism.
Since 2010, we have repeatedly stated, the Revolutionary Guard Corps must be designated as a terrorist organization. This has been a long-standing demand of the Iranian Resistance. We hope that the legal obstacles to this decision will be removed as soon as possible.
We call on European governments, and especially the United Kingdom:
to condition their relations with the regime on the halt of executions of political prisoners and the killing of protesters;
to bring the regime’s leaders to justice under universal jurisdiction for more than four decades of genocide and crimes against humanity; and to recognize the provisional government declared by the National Council of Resistance of Iran.