TEHRAN -- Iran has slammed the West’s hypocrisy, saying murderers of the Iranian people are roaming freely in Europe while European officials are complaining about human rights in the Islamic Republic.
In a tweet, Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights and the Judiciary chief’s deputy for international affairs, strongly criticized two European diplomats for calling for the release of a convicted prisoner in Iran.
German Commissioner for Human Rights Luise Amtsberg and French Ambassador for Human Rights Delphine Borione had called new prison term for Narges Muhammadi as unfair and called for her immediate release.
“If these two French and German officials feel a concern for human rights, instead of defending a convict, they should adopt a stance on the victims of Monafeqin (MKO terrorists) in Iran who are operating freely in their countries,” Gharibabadi tweeted.
Monafeqin is the sobriquet used to describe the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), a terrorist group detested in Iran due to its history of atrocities against the Iranian nation, including its liaison with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the war he waged against Iran in the 1980s.
Gharibabadi hit out at Amtsberg for turning a blind eye to the case of Kazem Darabi, who has been deprived of visiting his paralyzed daughter in Germany since he was deported to Iran in 2007 after spending 15 years behind bars over his alleged role in assassinations that took place in 1992.
“By the way, what’s the stance of the German commissioner on Kazem Darabi being deprived of visiting his daughter in Germany for 15 years?” he asked.
Gharibabadi separately dismissed recent statements made by the French Foreign Ministry threatening to exert pressure on Iran to secure release of two convicts.
He said, “The difference between Iran and France is that we deal with criminals according to laws, but France protects and welcomes criminals and terrorists. The fact that some members of the MKO terrorist group are freely and actively present in this country confirms this point.”
He also made clear that a country that uses its citizens to spy on other nations and later threatens to exert pressure to secure their release “has no right to pretend to be righteous”, apparently referring to the case of French national Benjamin Briere who was sentenced last week by an Iranian court to eight years in prison on spying charges.
Briere, 36, was arrested in May 2020,
when he after flying a helicam - a remote-controlled mini helicopter used to obtain aerial or motion images - in the desert near the Turkmenistan-Iran border.
Gharibabadi said France has to be held accountable before the Iranian nation due to its numerous violations of their rights, especially in the case of the MKO group, stressing that Paris is in no position to dictate its will to the Iranian judicial system.
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 fell 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. Major European countries, including France, have also removed it from their blacklists.
The 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.