Iran News Update - Iran: opposition leader calls for international investigation of massacre of political prisoners

PARIS, Aug. 24, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On August 24, Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi reiterated that it is imperative to hold an international probe into the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran and to bring its perpetrators to justice.

The President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran made the call during a tour of an exhibition in Paris Municipality 2nd District displaying photos of the massacred political prisoners.

Mr. Jacques Boutault, mayor of Paris's 2nd District, Jean Francois Legaret, mayor of Paris's 1^st District, and a number of French personalities including Rama Yade, former Minister of Human Rights took part and addressed the exhibition. Former Columbian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt also spoke at the event. 

Paris Municipality 2nd District issued a statement on the exhibition and the visit that read in part:

"This exhibition especially commemorates the sad anniversary of the massacre of some 30,000 political prisoners during the summer of 1988 in Iran. This terrible episode in modern history is now back on the front burner with the revelation a few days ago of an audiotape recounting conversations that occurred at the highest level with those directly responsible for the killings.

While condemning the crimes of the previous era, Jacques Boutault, mayor of the 2nd district, said it was urgent to pressure the Iranian regime to stop executions in Iran, and to condition relations with that country on significant improvement in respect for human rights, including at the end of the death penalty. Jacques Boutault believes the waves of executions that occurred in recent months in Iran are an extension of the 1988 massacre.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, paid tribute to the heroes and heroines of the French Resistance and victims of the Nazi occupation.

She said the exhibition reflected the arrests, torture and executions of prisoners. She denounced the conspiracy of silence that hung over these crimes, calling it a painful silence for the Iranian people and especially the thousands of families who lost loved ones in the massacre. She urged the international community, including the UN, to bring Iran's ruling mullahs to justice.

Throughout the exhibition, witnesses of the crimes, particularly former political prisoners, shared their painful experiences with visitors. They also relayed stories about the courage and steadfastness of the Iranian Resistance.

Jacques Boutault said: "Our borough today commemorates the liberation of Paris, which ended four years of occupation by Nazi Germany. If European countries were able to sustain the end to the dictatorship, it is because they have the ability to remember the past so it would not be repeated. This unspeakable episode in Iranian history would only result in continuation of what is unspeakable. That is why the town hall of the 2nd District is honored to host this exhibition and listen to the witnesses of this inhuman episode in Iranian history. "

SOURCE Iran News Update