Tehran, Sep 1 (IANS) A top Iranian official has urged the European Union (EU) to put anti-Tehran “terrorists” on trial, while regretting that some member states of the bloc have given these elements shelter.
“Over 17,000 oppressed Iranian citizens have been victimized by terrorist acts and clear and systematic violations of the basic human rights, including the rights to life, security, and health,” the Iranian Parliament’s Human Rights Commission Chairwoman Zohreh Elahian said in a letter on Monday to Maria Arena, the head of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights.
Members of the exiled Iranian Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) were responsible for many of these terrorist acts, Xinhua news agency quoted Elahian as saying in the letter.
“Most of the terrorists have sought asylum in European countries and keep on plotting against the people of Iran,” she added.
The Iranian lawmaker reminded the European governments’ commitments to cooperate “in matters such as the identification and prosecution of offenders, their extradition and the seizure of their assets in order to compensate victims”.
Elahian asked the European Parliament to take action, and hoped that European governments will “support the victims of terror and their family members, deliver justice to victims, and put the terrorists who live in these countries on trial to end impunity”.
Elahian sent a similar letter to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, calling on the Foreign Ministry to make preparations for prosecuting MKO terrorists.
“Unfortunately, today the majority of these terrorists continue to hatch plans against the Iranian people by fleeing the blade of justice and seeking refuge in European countries,” she said in the letter.
According to a report in the state-run Fars News Agency, the MKO is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community.
Its members fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq, where they received support from then-dictator Saddam Hussein.
In 2012, the US State Department removed the MKO from its list of designated terrorist organizations.
–IANS
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