Party Italian senators and parliamentarians call to recognize 1988 massacre in Iran

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At a meeting of the Italian Senate on Thursday, November 4, attended by more than 20 Italian parliamentarians and senators from various parties, the speakers urged the government to recognize the 1988 massacre in Iran as genocide and a crime against humanity.

The Senators and lawmakers also called for an end to the immunity for those responsible for the 1988 massacre and the November 2019 massacre of protesters and urged Italy to play a leading role in lead the initiative to bring to justice the perpetrators of these crimes by the European Union and the United Nations.

Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran also joined the meeting online.  Former Italian Foreign Minister Julio Terzi also spoke at the event.

“Khamenei and his regime have declared war on the Iranian people and the international community by appointing Ibrahim Raisi as president and accelerated their efforts to develop an atomic bomb,” Rajavi said

Raisi was one of four members of the Tehran Death Committee that carried out the 1988 massacre. Many prominent international jurists have described the 1988 crime as genocide and a crime against humanity. As the Judiciary Chief, Raisi was involved in the killing of at least 1,500 demonstrators and the arrest, torture and imprisonment of 12,000 demonstrators, during the November 2019 uprising.

Rajavi added: ‌ “We aim to find a complete list of those executed and the location of their graves. The purpose of this call to justice is to prosecute those responsible, including Khamenei and Raisi. Ultimately, the objective of the call for justice movement is to free Iran from repression and violence.”

Referring to the November 2019 massacre of protesters, the NCRI President-elect said it was the largest massacre of protesters in the contemporary world. To prevent the recurrence of such carnage, the Iranian people and resistance demand that respect for the human rights and the protection of the lives of Iranian protesters should be at the heart of any negotiations with the clerical regime. Without insisting on the human rights in Iran, no negotiation or attempt to stop the regime from acquiring the atomic bomb will succeed.

Senator Roberto Rampi chaired the meeting that was held by Italian Parliamentary Committee for a Free Iran. He said: “Impunity reigns in Iran. In the summer of 1988 over 30,000 political prisoners were massacred, 90% of them members and supporters of the main democratic popular opposition movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). This was a clear case of crime against humanity and a genocide. While The Iranian resistance immediately alerted the United Nations and the world community, no action was taken. This silence legitimized the impunity and emboldened the regime. No official was held to account.  Following the recent calls by Amnesty International and the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, as a member of the Senate Human Rights Committee, I think it is a duty for all parliaments of the world to address this matter as Italy did for the massacres in Rwanda and Srebrenica.”

Some of the Senators and members of parliament who took part in the Italian Senate meeting were Senator Lucio Malan, Senator Stefano Lucidi, Member of Parliament Stefania Pezzopane, Senator Enrico Aimi,  Senator Maria Virginia Tiraboschi, and senator Marco Perosino.

In their remarks they underscored that Raisi’s appointment as the president, is clearly aimed at suppressing internal dissent and intimidation to silence the Iranian people and is a clear sign of the regime’s growing despair.

They called on the Government of Italy and the European Union to recognize the 1988 massacre in Iran as genocide and a crime against humanity, and to take a leading role in referring human rights abuses in Iran to the UN Security Council and to prosecute the masterminds and perpetrators of this crime. The impunity of those responsible for the 1988 massacre and the massacre of protesters in November 2019 must end.

They stressed that the international community cannot remain silent in the face of this situation and called for a decisive policy towards the Iranian regime. A policy in which human rights are at the center and the continuation and expansion of relations depend on tangible improvement of the human rights situation and in particular, the cessation of executions and torture.

Members of Italian senate and parliament also supported the 10-point plan of Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, for a democratic republic based on the separation of religion and state, equality of genders, ethnic and religious minorities in Iran, and the abolition of the death penalty.

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