TEHRAN -- A senior official of Iran’s Judiciary has slammed Western countries for adopting a “selective” approach to human rights by allowing the MKO terrorist organization to hold “ridiculous” meetings on the issue.
Kazem Gharibabadi, the Iranian Judiciary chief’s deputy for international affairs and secretary of the country’s High Council for Human Rights, made the remarks two days after MKO ringleader Maryam Rajavi delivered an online address to an Italian senate panel.
Gharibabadi strongly condemned the session, calling on the Italian government and senate to end their “dual and destructive policies” towards terrorism and human rights.
The MKO’s hands are stained with the blood of thousands of innocent Iranians, but its terrorists travel freely in European capitals and hold “ridiculous” human rights meetings with the support of those countries’ state bodies, he said.
“Such measures are a clear symbol of the Western countries’ selective and instrumental approach to human rights as well as the fight against terrorism,” Gharibabadi said.
He also called on Iran’s foreign ministry to counter the West’s “duplicity and political game” by taking necessary actions such as summoning the Italian ambassador to Tehran.
The Judiciary official further urged the Italian government to distance itself from the senate move and abide by its commitments regarding the fight against terrorism.
Additionally, he asked the president of the Italian senate to get information about the MKO’s terrorist acts by inviting some of the victims of the notorious group to the legislature.
The MKO has conducted numerous assassinations and bombings against Iranian statesmen and civilians since the 1979 victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Its members fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq, where they enjoyed backing from former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist assaults since the Islamic Revolution, about 12,000 have fallen victim to the MKO’s acts of terror.
The anti-Iran cult was on the U.S. government’s list of terrorist organizations until 2012 when it was removed. Major European countries, including France, have also removed it from their blacklists.
A few years ago, MKO elements were relocated from their Camp Ashraf in Iraq’s Diyala Province to Camp Hurriyet, a former U.S. military base in Baghdad, and later sent to Albania.
MKO terrorists enjoy freedom of activity in the U.S. and Europe and even hold regular meetings in which European and American officials make speeches.