Iran’s human rights chief responded to the European Parliament’s resolution on the death penalty in the country, saying the new resolution had been formulated for merely political purposes.
Kazem Gharib Abadi, Vice-President of the Judiciary for International Affairs and Secretary General of the Islamic Republic of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, said on Friday that the resolution encompass distorted and fabricated issues that do not indicate existing realities in Iran, but it has been prepared in according with political purposes.
Pointing to the fact that the execution penalty is being conducted in 55 countries throughout the globe, Gharib Abadi urged the European Parliament and European states to respect other nations’ laws and cultural diversity concerning human rights.
According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, death penalty is allowed when it comes to capital crimes, the Iranian official said, noting that Europeans should avoid forcing other nations to accept and implement European standards, which is in contradiction to other countries’ sovereignty.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Gharib Abadi criticized the European Parliament for supporting the MKO terrorist group and describing such a dangerous group as political opponents, noting that it is shameful for those representatives in the European Parliament that neglect crimes and massacres committed by the terrorists who killed more than 12,000 civilian Iranians and they yet continue their crimes, while travelling in European countries freely.
As to the resolution’s support for an Iranian-European national named Ahmad-Reza Jalali, the official censured Europe’s policy in misusing such people for spying on other countries, including Iran.
He went on to say that certain European states have extradited some Iranian nationals to the United States based on fake justification that they dodged illegal US sanctions, calling on Europe to stop violating Iranians’ rights.
The death penalty is a law that tries to implement rights of families of victims; so, the government cannot change the rule, but the judiciary system and popular groups in Iran try to persuade the families of the victims to stop execution of capital punishment, he said, urging the European Parliament to revoke the resolution, which has been ratified as a result of lobbies’ influence.