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Van Bommel: Verhagen must take stronger action over threatened execution of Iranians

13 October 2009

Van Bommel: Verhagen must take stronger action over threatened execution of Iranians

SP member of Parliament Harry van Bommel is urging Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Verhagen to take more drastic action against the threatened execution of three Iranians condemned to death for their part in this summer's demonstrations against the Tehran regime. Verhagen plans to join EU colleagues in putting pressure on the Iranian government to revise the sentence, but Van Bommel does not believe that this goes far enough.

Harry van Bommel"Protest at European level is insufficient," Van Bommel insists. "The Netherlands must make use of its own channels. "We are faced with an escalation of political oppression in Iran and should be reacting with stronger diplomatic methods. The minister must summon Iran's most senior diplomat in The Hague, and it would in addition be a good thing if the Dutch embassy in Tehran could be present as an observer at the trials of the demonstrators. Independent observers are a rarity at trials in Iran.”

Since the sentences were passed it has been revealed that Mehdi Karroubi, one of the leaders of the opposition, will be subpoenaed. Karroubi says that after arrest demonstrators were subject to physical abuse in prison, abuse which included rape.

"To forestall a situation in which the whole of the Iranian opposition is wiped out," says Van Bommel, "the Netherlands must take action."

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