In a farcical display of what they call ‘justice’ in Iran, a Kangaroo Court has ordered that anyone participating in events organised by the main democratic opposition movement, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), anywhere in the world, will be found guilty of ‘rebellion’, which carries an automatic death sentence. The absurd ruling was issued on 9^th July by Judge Dehghani, who has presided over 15 sessions, so far, of a sham trial in Tehran of 104 leaders of the MEK, all of whom live abroad. During the bogus trial, the judge declared that judicial notices had been sent to all 104 defendants in the case under the Islamic penal code of Iran. He expressed disappointment and frustration that the defendants had neither hired lawyers or filed a defence with his court, stating that he expected all the defendants to be extradited to Iran to face punishment and threatened that countries which failed to extradite them would be held in contempt. His threats have been interpreted by many as a warning that the mullahs’ will take the law into their own hands and carry out terrorist operations to assassinate dissidents living abroad.

Judge Dehghani declared that Red Notices would be issued by Interpol to ensure that all 104 defendants would be arrested and extradited to face certain execution in Iran. Clearly believing that his legal jurisdiction now extends to the entire planet, Dehghani went on to say that he had asked Iran’s foreign minister to ensure that any Iranians living abroad would automatically be issued with Red Notices and prosecuted for rebellion, if they attended any events organized by the MEK. His ridiculous outburst was evidently triggered by news of the major event held in Berlin on 29 June, when tens of thousands of ex-pat Iranians attended a mass rally organized by the MEK. On the same day, hundreds of former world leaders and senior political figures, including former US Vice President Mike Pence and former US Secretary of state Mike Pompeo, attended an MEK event in Paris. The completely irrational concept that a bent judge in Tehran could issue tens of thousands of arrest warrants for all of these people and expect EU Member States to comply with extradition procedures, best illustrates how seriously deluded justice has become under the mullahs’ theocratic regime. Interpol has simply ignored demands for Red Notices from the Iranian regime in the past and will undoubtedly do so again.

The absurdity of the sham trial and Judge Dehghani’s latest outburst, also serves to illustrate how the Iranian regime fears the MEK and its growing international reputation and burgeoning influence inside Iran, where Resistance Units are now present in every town and city. Worldwide, more than 4,000 lawmakers from 81 parliaments in 50 countries, have signed a letter of support for Mrs Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), of which the MEK is a key component part. The letter includes Mrs Rajavi’s ten-point plan for a future democratic secular republic in Iran, embracing freedom, justice, human rights, women’s rights, an end to the death penalty and an end to the nuclear threat. The 4,000 legislators have repeatedly expressed their deep concern at the Iranian regime’s ruthless repression of the 85 million population of Iran.

Mr Javaid Rehman KC, the UN’s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran has recently published a devastating document outlining the extent of human rights abuse and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the mullahs’ regime. He highlights, at length, the 1988 massacre of more than 30,000 political prisoners, mostly members or supporters of the MEK, who were executed based on a Fatwa issued by the Supreme Leader, simply for confirming their affiliation to the opposition movement. The regime’s aggression has continued with a frenzy of executions, including 864 people last year alone. Their sponsorship and direct involvement in conflicts throughout the Middle East has become a focal point of Western concern.

The mullahs back Basahr al-Assad in Syria, the Houthi rebels in Yemen who are attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea, the Shi’ia militias in Iraq, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. It is now well known that Tehran was directly involved in the Hamas attack on Israel on 7^th October last year, triggering the current war in Gaza. They are close allies of China, North Korea and Russia, providing President Putin with kamikaze drones to use in his illegal war in Ukraine. They finance and co-ordinate international terrorist attacks worldwide, recently targeting the assassination of John Bolton, the former US national security advisor, in an operation thwarted by the FBI.

They also attempted to assassinate the senior Spanish politician Alejo Vidal Quadras, shooting him in the face outside his Madrid home, last November. Professor Vidal Quadras miraculously survived, and several people involved in the assassination attempt have now been arrested, including the French/Tunisian hitman, who is wanted for murder in France and is involved in the international drugs trade. It is now apparent that the Iranian regime hires narco-gangsters to carry out their assassinations, in an attempt to keep at arms-length from the crimes.

The head of the snake is in Tehran and rather than giving moral support to the beleaguered Iranian people in their bid for regime change, Western governments continue to bend over backwards to appease the mullahs, even promoting the misconception that the newly elected President Pezeshkian of Iran is a ‘moderate’ or a ‘reformist’, rather than a lightweight puppet of the Supreme Leader, the elderly and dangerously unstable Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It is time for the UK and EU to follow America and Canada’s lead in blacklisting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and closing their embassies in Tehran. We must call out the mullahs and hold them to account for crimes against humanity and genocide. We must expose the sham judiciary in Tehran and its bogus trial in absentia of opposition leaders and dissidents. The head of the snake in Tehran must be severed and the West should support the Iranian people in their bid to do so.

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STRUAN STEVENSON

Struan Stevenson is the Coordinator of the Campaign for Iran Change (CiC). He was a member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999-2014), president of the Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009-14) and chairman of the Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (2004-14). He is an author and international lecturer on the Middle East.