Iranians in Ireland call on Government to push for sanctions

MEMBERS OF the Iranian community in Ireland have called on the Government to push for economic and political sanctions against Iran.

Speaking at the Sub-Committee on Human Rights of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Dr Roja Fazaeli, Islamic studies lecturer at Trinity College, said she could name at least 800 people who had been arrested following the country’s controversial elections in June.

Among them was Masha Amrabadi, a young, pregnant journalist whom Dr Fazaeli said was not doing well in prison, and Jila Baniyaghoob and her husband, Bahman Ahmadi Amoee, both journalists and human rights activists.

Students at Tehran University had also been attacked and severely beaten in their dormitories by militia. “There are a lot of people who have just gone missing and we fear that they have been killed due to beatings,” Dr Fazaeli said.

She urged that Ireland, as a member of the international community, should do all it can to uphold human rights in Iran and called on the Government to push for economic and political sanctions against Iran in Europe.

She also presented a letter signed by more than 100 international academics, including Maureen Junker-Kelly of Trinity College, Dublin; Siobhán Mullaly, University College Cork; and Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Abbas Sadri told the committee yesterday was the 10th anniversary of attacks on Tehran University, when students were thrown from the fourth floor by security forces.

He rejected a suggestion that the committee invite the Iranian ambassador to Ireland, Ebrahim Rahimpour, to speak to them and the delegation could be present to raise its concerns. Mr Sadri said this would serve no purpose other than the families of the delegation being threatened in Iran.

Deputy Michael D Higgins suggested the committee ask for the right to visit specific detained individuals.

Committee chairman Senator Ivor Callely said the committee would write to Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin and request he continue to raise the “intolerable” level of human rights abuses in Iran. They would also invite Mr Rahimpour to attend a future committee meeting, he said.

Gay Mitchell MEP, who was also present, said he would bring a copy of its minutes to MEPs.