LIVE: Conference calling for justice in Iran and Syria
- Saturday, 26 November 2016 13:50
20.00: This concludes the live updates to this page about the Paris conference demanding justice for the victims of the #1988massacre in #Iran and the ongoing massacre of innocent people in #Syria.
19.57: A video clip is being shown about the mass graves in Iran where the victims of the 1988 massacre were secretly buried. There is also a live performance in addition to the video clip.
19.53: Iman Afsahi: I am a 33 student who only recently escaped Iran to join the PMOI. My father was executed by the mullahs' regime simply for supporting democracy and being a member of the PMOI. My uncle was yet another victim of the regime. He gave his life for the freedom of his people. I have come here to join the movement to obtain justice for the victims of the massacres in Iran's prisons.
19.47: Farideh Goudarzi: "... My husband Behzad Afsahi was hanged in June 1984 and after long tortures. And my sister Fariba Goudarzi was martyred in the Eternal Light operation by the regime's mercenaries. In 1988, I was in solitary confinement in the IRGC prison under torture for three months, and I was unaware of what was going on outside. Later I heard that every night the prisoners were taken for execution and all relocations were carried out in silence and special security conditions. My brother, Parviz, was among the first victims of the 1988 massacre in Hamadan. After three months when I came out of the solitary confinement, I found that many of the prisoners had been executed. When my family went to the court to ask about my brother's situation, they faced with a large number of families who had also come to ask about their children. And they were told that their children had been executed. … My son, Iman, was also arrested on the charge of being a PMOI sympathizer. And later we decided to leave Iran and we are now here with you. Sister Maryam [Rajavi], at this moment I would like to thank you for the justice seeking campaign for those massacred. You are the voice of all bereaved families and the right answer to their pains and sufferings. I have come here to join the justice seeking campaign for the 120,000 martyrs, including my brother, sister, husband and best friends."
19.45: Farideh Goudarzi: "I am Farideh Goudarzi, a supporter of the PMOI who left Iran two months ago. I became acquainted with the PMOI in the course of the anti-monarchial revolution. I was arrested in the summer of 1983 and spent five and half years in Hamadan prison. I am one of the witnesses of the 1988 massacre. I was arrested along with my husband and brother in the summer of 1983. I was pregnant when arrested, and as my doctor said I was not far from my delivery. They took me in that condition to the torture room from the early hours of my arrest. It was a dark room with a bed in the middle and a variety of electric cables to torture prisoners. One of the people who was present during the torture was Ebrahim Raisi, then chief prosecutor of Hamadan and one of the members of the death committee in the massacre of the 1988 summer. Fifteen days later, while I was in very dire situation under physical and psychological torture, my child, Iman, was born. After the birth of my child, they transferred me and my child to solitary confinement. It was so terrible. A newly born child, and several interrogations a day. Sometimes I fed my child only with water and sugar for 48 hours. And he was very sick. There was always a sound that could be heard in the silence of solitary confinement. Cries of my son, Iman, placed all prisoners under pressure. They informed my family of my arrest after six months. Since I was on death row, I tried to give my son to my family during the visitation. Bitter moments of separation from a child who was separated from my arms crying and screaming."
19.41: Farideh Goudarzi and her son Iman Afsahi, ex-Iranian political prisoners, are now on the stage to address the conference. Farideh an ex-political prisoner spent over six years in prison in the 1980s and was witness to the 1988 massacre. Her son Iman was born in prison and her husband was executed by the mullahs' regime. Iman who was born in prison, was himself arrested and held in Evin Prison in recent years, they have both escaped in the past few months from Iran.
19.31: Fadel Abdul Ghany, chairman and founder of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, is now addressing the Paris conference: Many of the Iranian regime's forces have been killed in Syria. The Iranian regime is assisting Assad with logistics, arms and personnel. They are also trying to instigate a sectarian war in the region. But they have a political goal.
19.21: Brita Haji Hasan, head of the Aleppo City Council, is now addressing the conference: Aleppo is under siege and it is being bombed and is burning. This atrocity is taking place at the hands of the Iranian regime, the Assad regime, Russia and Daesh (ISIS/ISIL). ... The Iranian regime's crimes in Syria are very clear. They are helping Assad both logistically and physically and they are sending their extremist militias to Syria to murder the people there in a fruitless attempt to keep Bashar Assad in power. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian regime's IRGC Quds Force, has taken over command of their deadly operations in Syria. They are even changing the demography of the area by forcing populations from specific parts of the country. They are also using numerous terrorist militias to carry out the massacre especially in Aleppo. But the Syrian revolution persists and will be successful and will defeat them. We must strive to evict the Iranian regime from Syria and the region. We must support our brothers and sisters in the PMOI who are the main resistance to the Iranian regime and who will inevitably defeat the regime.
19.13: Dr. Mohamad Alsulami, Saudi columnist and head of the Gulf Center for Iranian Studies, is now addressing the conference: The people of Iran have chanted on the streets demanding that the regime stop interfering in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. The Iranian people don't support the policies of the mullahs' regime. The Iranian regime is sponsoring terrorists in the region who are murdering innocent people. It is using its terrorist militias and Lebanese Hezbollah to massacre the people of Syria. The Iranian regime must be driven back from the region. This is a correct policy for everyone to be supporting.
19.07: A live musical performance about the atrocities taking place in Syria is now being performed.
19.02: François Colcombet, former French judge and lawmaker and co-founder of the French Committee for a Democratic Iran (CFID), is now addressing the conference: Iran has an ancient culture and civilization but sadly the mullahs have established a dictatorial regime. They are also supporting the brutal Bashar Assad regime. Behind Assad is the Iranian regime. If France adopts a weak position against the Iranian regime, the situation in Syria will get worse. So we have to adopt a very strong position against both the Iranian regime and Bashar Assad.
18.54: Saleh Al-Qallab, Jordan's former Minister of Publicity, is now on the stage addressing the Paris conference: Dear sister and President Maryam Rajavi, Iran and all its people and its culture have had a historic influence on the region. But now the mullahs' regime is murdering the children in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. But the real representatives of the Iranian people are the members of the Resistance who are standing up to this regime. … The PMOI will be victorious and it will defeat the mullahs’ regime. I hope our next gathering will be together in Tehran.
18.48: Michel Kilou: The Iranian regime’s intelligence ministry and terrorists are carrying out acts of terrorism in Syria and the Middle East. There can only be peace and freedom in Syria once Bashar Assad in out of power.
18.45: Michel Kilou, a prominent Syrian writer and journalist and Political Committee member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, is now addressing the conference. He firstly pays tribute to the martyrs of the Iranian and Syrian resistance movements against the dictatorships in both countries.
18.38: Haitham al-Maleh: The Syrian regime is clinging on to power with the support of the Iranian regime and Russia. The Iranian regime has dispatched its terrorists including Lebanese Hezbollah and its so-called Iraqi Shiite militias to murder the people of Syria. The international community must not close its eyes on this great crime. They must support the Syrian people in their revolution. The solution to the crisis in Syria is a change of regime in Iran.
18.35: Haitham al-Maleh, Chairman of the legal committee of the opposition Syrian National Coalition is now on the stage to address the Paris conference. He asks the participants to stand for a minute of silence in remembrance of the countless number of victims of Bashar Assad’s crimes in Syria.
18.28: A Syrian song is being performed by Syrian girls about their suffering.
18.23: Sid Ahmed Ghozali, former Prime Minister of Algeria, is now addressing the Paris conference: I was truly touched by what the young Iranian students who were imprisoned in Iran and who recently escaped there just told us. ... Some 30000 members of the Iranian Resistance were massacred in less than four months with a single fatwa by Khomeini. It is truly horrendous that the international community has been silent about this. It is also shameful of the international community to allow the atrocities and killings in Syria continue by Bashar Assad and the Iranian regime.
18.20: The former writer and reporter for Syria in the Arab Union, Dr. Anwar Malek, is now addressing the conference. He is calling for a free Syria. "The only way to achieve freedom, peace, and security in Syria is regime change," he said.
18.13: There is now a song being performed by the Iranian Resistance and Syrian people in support of the Syrian revolution as the second segment of the conference is about to begin seeking justice over the crimes against humanity perpetrated by Bashar Assad and the Iranian regime in Syria
18.07: Jelia Sane, UK barrister and experienced international lawyer: I am a member of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales. I have been moved by the stories of unimaginable suffering which I have heard here today. The 1988 massacre in Iran was a crime against humanity. It was an attack on the very concept of being a human being. This was widespread since it happened to 30,000 people. This was a state policy. The text of the decree which ordered the massacre exists today. The highest authorities of the state were all informed of what was going on. So there needs to be accountability. I hope that the UN will establish a commission of inquiry to investigate this massacre. I repeat what Dr. Martin Luther King said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice’.
17.58: Fatoumata Diarra: In Iran the pain of the great crime remains in the heart of families because justice has not been achieved over the 1988 massacre which was an atrocity. It is clear that the regime’s national courts will not investigate the massacre. The minister of justice himself was one of the perpetrators of this crime. So it is incumbent on the international community to take the initiative and obtain justice over this crime against humanity.
17.55: Fatoumata Diarra, Judge for the International Criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the international Criminal Court since 2003, is now on the stage addressing the conference and calling for justice for the victims of the 1988 massacre in Iran.
17.53: French Bishop Jacques Gaillot: We must investigate Iran’s 1988 massacre and atrocity. We must discover that which has been hidden by the mullahs. I repeat your words: ‘We can and we must’ succeed.
17.51: French Bishop Jacques Gaillot, a great friend of the Iranian Resistance, is now on the stage speaking in support of the Iranian Resistance's call for justice over the 1988 massacre in Iran.
17.48: Now a performance is taking place on the stage about the #1988massacre in #Iran.
17.42: Marcin Święcicki: I support your fight for accountability over the terrible crime in Iran - the 1988 massacre of political prisoners. The victims of the Iranian regime will not be forgotten, thanks to your work.
17.41: Marcin Święcicki, head of the Friends of a free Iran in the Polish Parliament, former Mayor of Warsaw and former Minister for foreign economic relations, is now on the stage to address the conference.
17.33: Irish Senator David Norris, former Presidential candidate in Ireland, is now on the stage to address the conference. Senator Norris, recognized for his civil rights activities, said: The 1988 massacre in Iran, in which some 30,000 political prisoners were killed, was a monstrous crime against humanity. … Earlier this week, one of my colleagues and I raised the issue of Iran’s 1988 massacre in the Irish Senate. Some of the top officials are still in power in Iran today. The current Minister of Justice (Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi) was an instrumental figure in carrying out the massacre. This is an outrage. We must oppose any appeasement of the Iranian regime by the international community.
17.29: Dr. Tahar Boumedra: On behalf of the JVMI we will present an objective fact-finding report to present to the new UN Secretary General about Iran’s 1988 massacre so that the UN can bring to justice the perpetrators of this crime against humanity.
17.25: Dr. Tahar Boumedra: The JVMI association has been launched this summer to bring those suspected of having committed crimes against humanity in the 1988 massacre to justice, to try to identify them and identify the laws applicable internationally to achieve a prosecution.
17.21: Dr. Tahar Boumedra, former head of the UN human rights office in Iraq, is now addressing the Paris conference. He said: "It was the victory of the PMOI to have been able to bring out of Iraq all of the PMOI members who were in Camp Liberty. They are all now free in Albania. ... The PMOI have achieved the impossible."
17.16: Arash Mohammadi: “In September 2013, I was still in prison when I read a newspaper headline on the regime’s attack against the city of resistance, Camp Ashraf. It was one of the most bitter and most difficult moments of my life. I had lost some of my best friends. I salute all the MEK (PMOI) members who sacrificed their lives so proudly and bravely for the freedom of their people. In those moments, I recalled the words of late MEK official Moussa Khiabani who said: “Rest assured, the MEK cannot be destroyed. This torch will be passed on, hand after hand.” … I am not here coincidentally. I have not reached this point by chance. It is because of the sacrifices made by such activists and martyrs that I am now here among you. I want to tell my friends and natives of Azerbaijan province that I have set foot on a path that was cherished and pursued by all freedom activists and MEK members, from Sattar Khan and Baqer Khan and Sheikh Mohammad Khiabani, to Alireza Nabdel, Samad Behrangi, Mohammad Hanifnejad and Moussa Khiabani. This is a path that they paved by sacrificing their lives, and we must continue on this path. I am here to be the voice of all the kids, women and men, all the political prisoners and my friends who want to breathe the air of freedom for even a second. I have chosen to follow over 120,000 martyrs, set foot on the path paved by the generation of Massoud Rajavi, and join the army of freedom.”
17.12: Arash Mohammadi: “I was only 19 when I was first arrested by the Iranian regime’s intelligence agents. I am now 25 and recently left Iran. I have come from a land whose children have to work on the streets and in factories to be able to pay for food. I have come from a country whose girls have acid splashed in their faces, whose mothers are left with grief, and whose women are left orphans. I have come from a country in which the wage of workers is only the count of lashes they receive. I have come from a place in which even during the so-called “moderation” phase, at least three people are hanged every day. And, teachers, workers, students and artists languish in prison. I have come from a country in which in 1988, 30,000 of its citizens were massacred for their political beliefs. The repressive rulers of Iran have instituted darkness and closed all avenues to protest, and the people seek the slightest ray of sunlight, no matter how faint it may be.”
17.10: Arash Mohammadi, a 25-year-old former political prisoner and student activist is now on the stage to address the Paris conference. He was arrested in Iran numerous times for his activities against the mullahs' regime and in support of the PMOI between 2011 and 2014 and subjected to barbaric torture and inhumane treatment. He was realeased from prison in June 2014 and recently escaped Iran to join the Resistance and is here with us today.
17.05: A segment is being shown at the conference explaining about the death chambers from the 1988 massacre in Iran.
16.52: Sir Geoffrey Robertson, QC: The UN has a duty to investigate and take action over the 1988 massacre in Iran. We must have a proper investigation. The UN Security Council has a duty to set up a special ad-hoc court. In cases of a crime against humanity people can be prosecuted in absentia. The Supreme Leader of Iran, who is a mass murderer, must be tried.
16.47: Sir Geoffrey Robertson, QC: The mass executions in Iran's prisons in 1988 were ordered by the then-Supreme Leader Khomeini and supported by the then-President and current Supreme Leader Khamenei. Another top official in this crime was Mostafa-Pour-Mohammadi, the current Justice Minister of the regime. They must be punished. We cannot allow this crime to go unpunished.
16.44: Sir Geoffrey Robertson, QC: The 1988 massacre in Iran was without doubt a crime against humanity.
16.41: Sir Geoffrey Robertson, QC, former UN tribunal chief judge on Sierra Leone and prominent human rights barrister, author of "The Massacre of Political Prisoners in Iran 1988" is now addressing the Paris conference: "I wrote a report on the 1988 massacre. Late in July 1988, as the war with Iraq was ending in a truculent truce, prisons in Iran crammed with government opponents suddenly went into lockdown. All family visits were cancelled, televisions and radios switched off and newspapers discontinued; prisoners were kept in their cells, disallowed exercise or trips to the infirmary. The only permitted visitation was from a delegation, turbaned and bearded, which came in black government BMWs or by helicopter to outlying jails: a religious judge, a public prosecutor, and an intelligence chief. Before them were paraded, briefly and individually, almost every prisoner (and there were thousands of them) who had been jailed for adherence to the MEK. ... The delegation had but one question for these young men and women (most of them detained since 1981 merely for taking part in street protests or possession of "political' reading material), and although they did not know it, on the answer their life would depend. Those who by that answer evinced any continuing affiliation with the Mojahedin were blindfolded and ordered to join a conga-line that led straight to the gallows. They were hung from cranes, four at a time, or in groups of six from ropes hanging from the front of the stage in an assembly hall; some were taken to army barracks at night, directed to make their wills and then shot by firing squad. Their bodies were doused with disinfectant, packed in refrigerated trucks and buried by night in mass graves. Months later their families, desperate for information about their children or their partners, would be handed a plastic bag with their few possessions. They would be refused any information about the location of the graves and ordered never to mourn them in public. By mid-August 1988, thousands of prisoners had been killed in this manner by the state – without trial, without appeal and utterly without mercy."
16.33: A group of political prisoners currently languishing in Iran’s notorious jails have sent a message to the Paris conference. Mayor Sylvie Fassier is reading out parts of the text.
16.30: Shabnam Madadzadeh: “To all the European countries and international institutions, I say that you must listen to the voice of the Iranian people, the voice of grieving mothers of martyrs, the voice of the families of the victims of the 1988 massacre, the voice of political prisoners in Iran. … The Iranian people condemn any form of relation or deals with the regime and they say that by continuing such contacts and remaining quiet about the regime’s violations, there will be new gallows set up in Iran’s streets. Your deals come at a price: the blood and lives of human beings. The Iranian people are convinced that the Iranian regime, which has vowed to destroy humans and humanity, will be toppled by the PMOI and the NCRI.”
16.28: Shabnam Madadzadeh: “I have to tell my friend Maryam from this podium that as I said during our last conversation, I promise to always be on your side and to echo your voice as you seek justice. I promise to tell her story for the world. Remembering all the sweet and bitter moments in prison, I vow to be with the justice seeking movement led by Mrs. Rajavi, which is now growing and expanding, so that we can bring the brutal mullahs to justice for massacring thousands of innocent people.”
16.25: Shabnam Madadzadeh: “Today, I stand in front of you to echo voices that seek justice and human rights, the voices of the activist and perseverant political prisoners in Iran. I echo the voice of my Christian and Bahai compatriots, whom the regime continues to imprison simply on the basis of their faith; the voice of the resilient women in prisons; The voice of my dear sister and my hero Maryam Akbari Monfared; an innocent mother of three who has spent more than 7 years in the regime’s prisons. When they arrested her, her daughter Sara was only four. But, even in the darkest and most difficult days, Maryam refused to surrender.
16.23: Shabnam Madadzadeh: “Like a dewdrop coming from the ocean of your piercing eyes, which glow with conviction and certainty, I have now joined the vigorous sea of the Mujahedin so I can grow even more. Mrs. Rajavi: I have come to you from the depressed and repressed streets of Iran, filled with cranes that execute citizens. I join you carrying a huge weight of suffering of the Iranian people, especially the women and girls of our homeland. I come to you from the ranks of activist and unrelenting university students, who have sent you messages. I carry numerous messages to you from the innocent women and girls languishing in Evin, Gohardasht and Qarchak prisons. They told me they had no safe refuge; they told me of the times when they were tortured, when they were held in illegal detention centers, and when they were raped by torturers. … For years, these women and girls have spent their lives under some of the worst circumstances, carrying with them their death sentences. They are experiencing a gradual death in the regime’s torture chambers. … Dear Mrs. Rajavi, I have brought all this pain in front of you to see because you are the only answer to these pains.”
16.20: Shabnam Madadzadeh: “The entire story began with two words. … “we Can and we Must”. These words ignited inspiration in me. They turned into courage, bravery and an unyielding declaration in the campus as I stared in the eyes of the regime’s security agents. They turned into courage when I defended with all my might the last bastions of freedom, shoulder-to-shoulder with my colleagues. These words gave me the ability to speak about freedom and the right to live. They enabled and empowered me during the horrifying attacks by agents against our university protests and gatherings. These were the words that inhabited my entire being. They nurtured confidence and were the key to my perseverance in solitary confinement. “We can and we must” – these were the source of my strength when I faced the loud shouts and violence of the regime’s interrogators. They gave me the conviction and faith as I sat down on the interrogation chair while five to six guards circled around me, talking about executions and torture. Each day of my five-year prison term, these were the words that showed me the promise of light and the coming of liberty. … Yes, Mrs. Rajavi, I found the strength to grow wings and fly thanks to your empowering words: 'we can and we must'.”
16.17: Shabnam Madadzadeh: “I left Iran a few months ago. I was a 21-year-old student and in my third year of studying computer science at Tehran’s Teacher’s Training University. My studies were cut short when the Iranian regime’s intelligence agents arrested me and my brother Farzad and took us to the notorious Evin Prison. I spent three months in solitary confinement, undergoing some of the most brutal forms of psychological and physical torture in Evin’s Ward 209. The worst of it all was when they tortured my brother Farzad in front of me. Later, I was sentenced to five years in prison by the regime and exiled to the dreadful Gohardasht Prison in Karaj. I spent time in Evin, Gohardasht, and the horrid Qarchack Varamin prisons. On several occasions that lasted a total of eight months, I was not permitted any visits or phone calls. But, we found solace in the proud resistance of the residents of Camp Ashraf. We were inspired by their perseverance and resoluteness even as we faced some of the most difficult times of our lives, like experiencing the execution of my dear friend and Kurdish activist Shirin Alam Houli.”
16.14: Shabnam Madadzadeh is welcomed onto the stage. She was arrested in 2009 while a student activist and spent 5 years in some of the most notorious prisons of Iran. Her older brother and sister were killed in the deadly attack on Camp Ashraf (Iraq) in 2011, while she herself was in Evin Prison. She was recently able to escape Iran and join the Resistance and she is here with us today.
16.03: Ingrid Betancourt: I pay tribute to Iranian political prisoner Maryam Akbari-Monfared who is currently standing against the mullahs' regime from inside prison. She has demanded justice for her siblings who were massacred in Iran's 1988 massacre of political prisoners simply for supporting the democratic opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK).
15.59: Ingrid Betancourt, former Colombian Presidential candidate and member of the Colombian Senate: Now that the brave members of the Iranian Resistance were successfully relocated from Camp Liberty in Iraq to Europe, we are finally on the offensive against the Iranian regime. ... We can point the finger at those who have committed crimes against humanity in Iran.
15.56: Maryam Rajavi: “As for the present crisis in the region, any solution seeking to end war and insecurity, and address the problem of Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) in particular, must consider terminating the regime's meddling in the region and especially in Syria. Nothing is more catastrophic than cooperating with the Iranian regime to fight Daesh. This would strengthen the Iranian regime and its terrorism, and would nourish Daesh, politically and socially. Fighting Daesh is inseparable from fighting the mullahs and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). The more the mullahs are driven back, the more Daesh will reach its end. We appeal to all the nations and states in the Middle East to evict the Iranian regime from the entire region. We also warn Western governments against giving any form of assistance to the crisis-riddled regime of Iran. We advise them against acting as a crutch for the crumbling Iranian regime by dealing with the IRGC. Instead, they should recognize the Iranian people's Resistance for regime change, freedom and democracn Iran.”
15.53: Maryam Rajavi: “I reiterate that, in diametric opposition to the mullahs, we and our people stand by the courageous and honorable people of Syria. We consider their innocent children as our own and we suffer with their pain and suffering. We shed tears for their devastated cities. We are anxious for their homelessness. We see ourselves as the citizens of the blood-drenched Aleppo. [Applause] … Syria is not alone. Syria beats in the hearts of the people of the world and no doubt it will triumph and it will be free.”
15.51: Maryam Rajavi: “Today, Khamenei has ever more strongly tied the fate of his decadent regime to the carnage of the people of Syria. He tried in vain to justify the regime's aggression and bloodshed under the pretext of defending the Holy Shrine (of Hazrat Zeinab). Now, he fails to unite even the internal factions of the regime over the continued waging of this filthy war. The war in Syria has nothing to do with the people of Iran and the Iranian interests. … Everyone knows that Khamenei's warmongering in Iraq, Syria and Yemen is intended to maintain the repression in Iran and to preserve the rule of the Velayat-e Faqih regime
15.49: Maryam Rajavi: “At the heart of this Justice Seeking Movement is bringing down the oppressors. The main demand of this Justice Seeking Movement is the overthrow of the Velayat-e Faqih regime in its entirety. This is the main goal of the people of Iran, and we can and we must achieve it.”
15.48: Maryam Rajavi: “In step with the escalation of domestic and international tensions for the regime, the Justice Seeking Movement for the massacred political prisoners has posed a major challenge to the mullahs by its expansion in Iran and abroad. In recent months, the Iranian Resistance disseminated new information obtained by its members and supporters inside Iran, involving the identities of more victims and more murderers. On the international level, the JVMI committee -- "Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran" – announced its formation in Geneva. The official registration of the US joint Congressional resolution condemning the massacre of political prisoners in 1988, as well as the calls by various parliamentary groups across Europe, were valuable steps which I hope would advance at greater pace and bring about the ultimate result. This call for justice has targeted the foundations of the religious dictatorship, and this is why the Velayat-e Faqih regime is so vulnerable to it. This is an awakening call and a call to all the oppressed.”
15.46: Maryam Rajavi: “Our demand is that the international community merely stops its policy of giving concessions to the Velayat-e Faqih regime. Our demand is to end this silence and inaction over the crimes of the Iranian regime in Iran and the region. What we want instead is their respect for the Iranian people's quest for freedom.”
15.43: Maryam Rajavi: “We have said this time and again since years ago, and I will repeat it again that the worst mistake of the United States in the region was its appeasement of the mullahs ruling Iran. From now on, the region would move towards peace and tranquility to the extent that the US distances itself from this disastrous policy. Likewise, the European Union may have a positive impact on the situation in Iran and the Middle East to the extent that it conditions the EU's political and commercial relations with Tehran on end to executions.”
15.40: Maryam Rajavi: “The mullahs are stuck so badly that they have started warning against the regime's future. So, our people are doing their drills by staging daily protests. What are they drilling for? They are drilling for the overthrow of the Velayat-e Faqih regime and their great uprising for freedom. [Applause] Under such circumstances, the Iranian regime is trying to conserve the West's defeated policy of appeasement. They want Western governments, and especially the United States and the EU, to continue their past years' policy which helped the religious tyranny survive in Iran and carry on with its war and terrorism in the region. After the US elections, however, the people of Iran, the Iranian Resistance, and the Middle East nations and states expect that the new US administration would revise its policy of the past three decades and particularly of the past 16 years.”
15.38: Maryam Rajavi: “One year after the lifting of sanctions, poverty and hunger continue to haunt our people more than ever. In the meantime, the regime's internal factions have begun settling their accounts by revealing a plethora of inner and outer secrets, financial frauds, and moral scandals. Today, the mullahs are no longer able to contain their own internal factions or the social protests, as they previously did.”
15.34: Maryam Rajavi: “Another sign the Resistance's rising phase is the escalation of popular protests and strikes in Tehran and other major capitals of Iran. Some weeks, there are ten protests held in front of the mullahs' parliament. Bazaar merchants are on strike in a number of cities. Students stage protest gatherings at their universities. Political prisoners stage hunger strikes in Tehran's Evin Prison, Gohardasht Prison in Karaj and in prisons of other cities.”
15.31: Maryam Rajavi: “We are holding this gathering at a time when the Iranian Resistance has successfully completed its major project, which was the safe and secure relocation of all members of the PMOI and a major part of the body of the Iranian people's movement from Camp Liberty to Europe. In this crucial endeavor, our Resistance overcame the ill will and intentions of the Iranian regime. The regime's numerous political and intelligence schemes failed and they did not accomplish anything by consecutive terrorist and rocket attacks. So, the Resistance's ultimate success is one of the most important signs that the clerical regime is in the phase of weakness and demise. Now the mullahs who plotted extensively to destroy all the members of the PMOI at Camp Liberty, have suffered a serious setback and there is not a day when they do not lament about the danger of the PMOI's resurgence within Iran.”
15.28: Maryam Rajavi begins her speech by paying tribute to the brave people of the great nation of Syria and the heroic Aleppo.
15.27: Participants cheer Maryam Rajavi who takes to the podium to begin her speech.
15.25: Sylvie Fassier, Mayor of the French town of Le Pin, the event’s moderator is now introducing Maryam Rajavi. “Mrs. Rajavi is a Muslim woman who stands against extremism and Islamic fundamentalism.”
15.23: Florence Berthout, Mayor of Paris’ 5th District, is welcoming guests to the conference. “Some 1000 executions took place in Iran last year”, she says. “We must mobilize against the abuses of this regime.”
15.20: Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi is loudly welcomed into the conference arena. Mrs. Rajavi, is President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
15.00: Political prisoners languishing in Iran’s notorious jails have sent a message of solidarity to the Paris conference.
14.50: A major conference in Paris calling for justice and demanding an end to impunity for perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Iran and Syria will begin in a few minutes. There will be a live updates on ncr-iran.org and a live stream to watch the event.
