Mount Royal MP Irwin Cotler, Co-Chair rose in the House of Commons yesterday to sound the alarm on “the wave of wanton executions in Iran, and the intensified persecution of the Baha’i”.
As co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Group for Human Rights in Iran, he called on the House to “join him in calling on President Rouhani to cease and desist from this wanton execution binge and to release these three prisoners threatened with imminent execution, along with other political prisoners, such as the leadership of the Baha’i, and to end Iran’s culture of impunity.”
Cotler, also founder of the Iranian Political Prisoner Global Advocacy Project and counsel to the imprisoned Baha’i leaders, warned of the imminent executions of three prisoners: tortured Senior Shiite clergyman Ayatollah Boroujerdi, who Professor Cotler referred to as “Iran’s Mandela”, adding that this “is a shocking example of the massive repression that has prevailed despite the reputed moderation under Rouhani ».
The others prisoners are renowned Iranian physicist Omid Kokabee, “who is languishing in prison on trumped up charges, has been denied life-saving medical care and whose release has been publicly urged by 25 Nobel laureates”; and sexual assault victim Rayhaneh Jabbari, “who was falsely convicted of murdering her assailant based on a coerced confession and a Kafkaesque proceeding.”